# 495litre - Simple



## sgdiscus (28 Jun 2016)

Hi all,

Just to share my newly setup tank. Two weeks old. Briefly, the specifications are as follows:

Equipment:
1. 150 x 55 x 60 (cm)
2. Sump tank (about 100litres)
3. 2 sets of AI Prime LED lights
4. Ehiem 1262 universal pump
5. Inline CO2 atomiser

Fert Regime:
6. EI Dosing (lean side as I have little plant mass) - 5-day programme
7. About 30 ppm CO2.

Plants:
1. Java ferns
2. Dwarf grass
3. Tiger lotus
4. Amazon swords
5. Nanas
6. Unidentified Val species (help out here if you can)
7. Dwarf water lettuce and water lettuce

Fishes:

1. 01 x Ram
2. 05 x Leopard cories
3. 03 x Otos

Future plan:

1. Let the plants develop abit more and probably add a few tall background plants to create 'more depth'.
2. Add a few more Otos.
3. Add another species of cory
4. Finally add wild discus.

Inputs on how to improve and also correct identification of plants are greatly appreciated.




 

Cheers!


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## sgdiscus (28 Jun 2016)

Sorry had some trouble uploading the pictures. ..


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## Ryan Thang To (28 Jun 2016)

look so cool. love the substrate. it going to be a pain to keep looking clean


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## sgdiscus (29 Jun 2016)

legytt said:


> look so cool. love the substrate. it going to be a pain to keep looking clean



thanks! I agree with you on the cleaning part. Siphoning the sand and cleaning the walls of the tank take me about 30mins during a 50% water change. The remaining 15min is spent on topping up the tank.


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## Lindy (29 Jun 2016)

Looks lovely. How are you going to combat evaporation considering it will be a hot tank for discus?


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## sgdiscus (29 Jun 2016)

Thank you. Evaporation should not be too much of an issue due to the following:

1. My sump tank capacity is sufficient to cater for evaporation rate in between water changes. So far I do not have to top-up water with the tank temperature between 26 to 28 Degree Celsius.

2. I live in Singapore. So the ambient temperature is usually between 27 to 33 degree Celsius at close to 100% humidity. So the rate of evaporation may not be as high compared to UK.

I am more concern about my ability to keep the substrate clean for the discus.

(Ps:grammar edit)


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## sgdiscus (8 Jul 2016)

A quick update.

1. Out of the 4 tiger lotus plants, only two are adjusting to the submerged environment.

2. The cories and otos are thriving.

3. The sand substrate, as predicted by someone here, is hard to maintain. So will have to go with the 'grunge' look instead of the snow look.

4. The dwarf grass on the right side is creeping.

5. The val on the left side is creeping as well and has flowered.

will update in a month's time.

thanks for viewing!


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## ian_m (8 Jul 2016)

sgdiscus said:


> So the rate of evaporation may not be as high compared to UK.


Will be much higher in UK as air is dryer, not 100% humidity. In Singapore the air was at 100% humidity therefore water would not evaporate off.


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## sgdiscus (1 Aug 2016)

An update. The plants are doing OK. 4 out of 6 the Tiger Lotus have established themselves. Small GSA on the drift wood but otherwise OK. 

Next update will hopefully include discus into the tank.


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## sgdiscus (7 Aug 2016)

An update. I did not manage to get any discus. But added some cories to the tank. Enjoy!


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## Alexander Belchenko (7 Aug 2016)

Great fish. I guess those with yellow neon stripe are lasers?


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## sgdiscus (7 Aug 2016)

Alexander Belchenko said:


> Great fish. I guess those with yellow neon stripe are lasers?



Yes.


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## sgdiscus (7 Aug 2016)

The village decided to come out and forage.


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## Manisha (7 Aug 2016)

sgdiscus said:


> The village decided to come out and forage. View attachment 86544



I see the police man, 2nd from the left!!  Lovely scape & substrate is immaculate


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## Jester (11 Aug 2016)

very clean and too hard to keep that way for me. White sand + fish poo + slight OCD = webbed hands.


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## sgdiscus (9 Sep 2016)

New additions to the village:
1. 6 panda loaches
2. 3 sparkling gourami
3. 3 Yamamoto shrimps.
4. 2 Dario dario

(edit to upload the pictures... couldn't do it through my phone.)


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## sgdiscus (10 Sep 2016)

Sad to report that i lost 4 of the panda loaches and all the yamamotos within the first 24 hours. For me to lose so many at one go means  I might have introduced them into my tank too early in my eagerness. Sigh.


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## dan4x4 (11 Sep 2016)

What brand of tank do you have it looks very clean.


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## Alex J (12 Sep 2016)

Sorry to hear of the loss of your loaches and Shrimp. In The wild the Loaches are found in fast flowing streams with a high dissolved  oxygen content, water temperature is generally between 20 to 24 centigrade, and an alkaline ph.  As far as i'am aware all fish offered for sale are wild collected, it's probable that the parameters in your tank have not suited the loaches. I kept a small group of four fish roughly five  years ago and tried to replicate a biotope aquarium, with regard to the specific requirements of the loaches. The last of the group died last year.


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## sgdiscus (12 Sep 2016)

dan4x4 said:


> What brand of tank do you have it looks very clean.



Hi dan, it is a custom-made tank with crystal glass (15mm). The tank maker (called N30) is based in Singapore.


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## sgdiscus (12 Sep 2016)

Alex J said:


> Sorry to hear of the loss of your loaches and Shrimp. In The wild the Loaches are found in fast flowing streams with a high dissolved  oxygen content, water temperature is generally between 20 to 24 centigrade, and an alkaline ph.  As far as i'am aware all fish offered for sale are wild collected, it's probable that the parameters in your tank have not suited the loaches. I kept a small group of four fish roughly five  years ago and tried to replicate a biotope aquarium, with regard to the specific requirements of the loaches. The last of the group died last year.



Hi Alex, you are right. I think got to do with water temperature rather than pH. My LFS had them in an air-conditioned room and hence water temperature was below 28C while my tank is at ambient temperature around 28C. 

These guys are really eye-catching... but sadly, they not suited for my tank.


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## sgdiscus (13 Sep 2016)

Tank Maintenance day.

Also added two new pieces of bucephalandras. I decided to put one onto the driftwood with its root hanging freely and another piece in the substrate. My LFS was not sure if they had been grown submersed or emersed. So I will use this thread to also track their development. 

Also had two fresh water clams in the tank. Dug up one to check on their health. They had been there for three weeks. Looks like they were unaffected by my fert and anti-algae regimes.


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## sgdiscus (4 Oct 2016)

Added some buce plants as follows:

1. Buce sp. Brownie Phantom
2. Buce sp. Pygmeae
3. Buce sp. Brownie Helena
4. Buce sp. Black Bell
5. And two other pieces of unknown Buce plants.

Hopefully I don't end up killing them.... finger cross. Let's see how they look by Christmas. One of the projects that I am thinking of - is to replace the petite nanas with buce plants on the top most of the drift wood near the water surface since I have a ready source of buce plants near my home.

On another note, sadly the tiger lotus don't really like sand substrate. I just can't get them to grow well despite adding root tabs. Thanks for viewing!


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## JimB123 (12 Oct 2016)

Hi quick question for you I noticed you are using primes what settings do you run them on I have a pair on my reef which I am planning to switch it to planted would rather keep the primes if I can use them


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## sgdiscus (15 Oct 2016)

JimB123 said:


> Hi quick question for you I noticed you are using primes what settings do you run them on I have a pair on my reef which I am planning to switch it to planted would rather keep the primes if I can use them



Yes, I am using the AI Primes. As for the settings, I suppose it really depends on the density and type of plants you have. For my tank the settings as follows:
1. CW 90%
2. Blue 90%
3. Green 80%
4. DB,Violet, UV 80%
Times:
1. Start at 3pm, ramp-up to my settings within 30mins.
2. Sunset at: 8pm and quickly ramp down to 20% by 9pm (because I cut-off Co2 at 8pm) and then from 9pm to 10pm a more gradual reduction from 20% to 0%. 
The reason for this setting is because I am at work during the day and so at least i have lighting to enjoy my tank when I am home for the evening.
Also this setting is done in conjunction with my co2 and fert regime so that I spend as little time as possible scrapping my tank during my maintenance night.


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## sgdiscus (16 Oct 2016)

Originally wanted to update in Nov. But woke up this morning to find a surprise visitor 'taking root' on my driftwood. 

I had previously soaked this wood in boiling water and even treated it in a salt bath. The other possibility is that the spores were blown in from the garden 11 floors below my apartment.


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## Manisha (16 Oct 2016)

sgdiscus said:


> Sad to report that i lost 4 of the panda loaches and all the yamamotos within the first 24 hours. For me to lose so many at one go means  I might have introduced them into my tank too early in my eagerness. Sigh.



Sorry for your losses 



sgdiscus said:


> Originally wanted to update in Nov. But woke up this morning to find a surprise visitor 'taking root' on my driftwood.
> 
> I had previously soaked this wood in boiling water and even treated it in a salt bath. The other possibility is that the spores were blown in from the garden 11 floors below my apartment.



September & October are when my garden has most mushrooms so would hazard a guess the spore came from the garden...

You maintain your sand substrate very well ☺Very clean! Also I like your stock, I've 2 sparkling gourami also & would love to get a dario dario mix but females don't seem common in the UK & my lfs live food source isn't consistent enough yet! Beautiful tank overall you have ☺


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## sgdiscus (26 Nov 2016)

Christmas came early... had some new additions to the tank.

Picture 1: Apisotgramma Macmasteri (male) settling in. 



 

Picture 2: Bucephalandra sp. Skeleton King on the left.




Picture 3: Macmasteri inspecting his new home...



 


Picture 4: Sideview... a view that is not often appreciated or considered in an aquascape.


 

Picture 5: Macmasteri with the rest of the village.....



 

Picture 6: Another perspective.



 

Picture 7: The village out foraging again...


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## alto (26 Nov 2016)

Tank is looking good  & fishes seems happy




> Sad to report that i lost 4 of the panda loaches and all the yamamotos within the first 24 hours. For me to lose so many at one go means I might have introduced them into my tank too early in my eagerness. Sigh.



Sorry to go back in time but missed this earlier - I doubt it was your tank specifically that caused the issue - those panda loaches are very young (they lose those dramatic markings quite quickly) & thin, it's not surprising that they didn't survive the stresses of capture to sale farm to sale shop to home aquarium ...
The yamato shrimp may've been similarly stressed as well - too many changes, too quickly.

It's a good idea to water change just before adding new fish (I don't know what your water change schedule is or how much you remove at each change), this way you won't need to stress new additions with an immediate water change, also you know that your tank water quality is at its best, add new fish when tank is dim - either after bright lights are finished for the day or I just skip a day of lighting to accommodate new fish, same with CO2, levels should be low or I just keep them lower for a couple days (adjust lights to match reduced CO2 level)

Accommodations for new fish rather depends on how sensitive new fish may be - I just assume that any new fish may be stressed etc




sgdiscus said:


> Picture 4: Sideview... a view that is not often appreciated or considered in an aquascape



 I have a tank that I look at from the side much more than the front ... it often looks "better" from that position as I set up hardscape & plants to look their best from that perspective


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## alto (26 Nov 2016)

Are you still planning discus?


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## sgdiscus (27 Nov 2016)

alto said:


> Are you still planning discus?


Yes, that's still the plan. I am waiting for my LFS to get some wilds. The shipment will happen in Dec. 

But I am still thinking hard about it whether my routine allow wild discus in my tank.


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## sgdiscus (27 Nov 2016)

alto said:


> Tank is looking good  & fishes seems happy
> 
> 
> 
> ...



@alto 

Thank you for viewing and I appreciate your pointers when introducing new fishes. Yes, I agree with you totally about trying to keep water parameters stable. I will actually take up your idea about the making water changes the next time when I have to introduce new fishes. That will come in handy as my next purchase could be discus.


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## xandro007 (27 Nov 2016)

Your water is so clear What is your secret 


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## sgdiscus (1 Dec 2016)

xandro007 said:


> Your water is so clear What is your secret
> 
> 
> Verzonden vanaf mijn iPad met Tapatalk



Hi there, thank you. I don't think there is any secrets. I do 50% water change. During the water change, I siphon dirt/waste from the sand as thoroughly as I can. I change the filter wool in my sump regularly. 

I think if you are to see my tank in person, you will still see small particles floating around. So it is not completely clear. Probably my handphone camera did not capture the particles.


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## sgdiscus (6 Dec 2016)

@moderators, thank you. I was beginning to wonder too if I should move the thread to this forum. Much appreciated!


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## sanj (8 Dec 2016)

I have kept green and black varieties of Skeleton King, its the only Bucephalandra sp. I tried that eventually fails. Im talking over a period of a year or so, but I am not sure it is a successful 100% of the time being submersed. Maybe you will have better luck.


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## sgdiscus (8 Dec 2016)

sanj said:


> I have kept green and black varieties of Skeleton King, its the only Bucephalandra sp. I tried that eventually fails. Im talking over a period of a year or so, but I am not sure it is a successful 100% of the time being submersed. Maybe you will have better luck.



Thank you for the tip! You could be right. I have scoured the internet about Skeleton King and many share your experiences although you are the first guy to have noted that your specimen lasted a year. 

I am planning to try one or two of my specimens in emersed form and maintain the remaining 4 in submersed form. 

Will post some photos of the new layout once I have more time and track them either via pin interest or in this thread.


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## sgdiscus (9 Dec 2016)

I have six bucephalandra sp. Kishii or aka Skeleton King and I have decided to document their growth (I hope... ) in my tank. Hopefully this will contribute a little bit more knowledge as to whether this particular species can be grown submersed.

1. Plant 1 - apparently it had been in my LFS tank for awhile. I accidentally broke a root when I brought it home. I decided that this will be the candidate to be grown emersed because it is the smallest of the 6.


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## sgdiscus (9 Dec 2016)

Plant 2 and 3. 

One on the left (Plant 2) has a light green leaves compared to the other 5. Both are planted at the substrate. Plant 2 is tied to a rock. Plant 3 is just stuck to the substrate with roots protruding. 



 

Plant 2 - another view


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## sgdiscus (9 Dec 2016)

Plant 4.

Also planted at the substrate tied to a rock. It is partially shaded.


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## sgdiscus (9 Dec 2016)

Plant 5.

Placed in a location with plenty of shade. In fact the shade is partly provided by Plant 6. It is not anchored by any rocks. Just left it 'standing' above some java ferns. Seems secured enough even during water change.


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## sgdiscus (9 Dec 2016)

Plant 6. 

Placed in the brightest spot and near water surface.



 

Will update again in Jan 2017!


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## sgdiscus (10 Dec 2016)

sgdiscus said:


> Plant 4.
> 
> Also planted at the substrate tied to a rock. It is partially shaded.
> 
> View attachment 95518



After a bit more reading (especially on a blog who apparently did an interview with Peter Boyce), I decided the odds are definitely against me being successful in converting B. Kishii from emersed to submersed form. As such, I decided to grow Plant 4 as emersed instead.

This is since I have Plant 2 and 3 already at the substrate level and there is little difference in the conditions between theirs and Plant 4's original location.

Plant 4 is also way more developed than Plant 6 giving me a much better chance to save at least one specimen should my conversion fail.



 

Picture above: Plant 4's new location. Even though it was only in the submersed location for less than 1 week, I observed that the roots had grown longer. That's  a good sign.



 

Picture above: Plant 4 new location is just above Plant 6. Plant 6 is fully submersed 6 to 8 cm below water surface.


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## sgdiscus (13 Dec 2016)

Was going to update in Jan 2017... but the deterioration of Plant 4 and Plant 1 leaves changed that.

I decided to adjust their locations. 



 

Caption 1: Plant 1 above was in an emersed location but the tip of the tallest leaf was drying up.



 

Caption 2: Plant 1 was shifted a few cm lower. Hopefully it will recover. 



 

Caption 3: Plant 4 above also showed clear sign of wilting at it's tallest leaf after I shifted it to an emersed location during water change last night. 



 

Caption 4: Shifted Plant 4 a few cm lower down. Adjusted it such that all the leaves have water running over them. An interesting phenomenon was that the leaves turned from dark colour to lime green as seen in the photo. No enhancement was done to the photo.

There are a few possibilities - (1) that these plants were either grown in a location saturated with water or (2) they were already adapted to submersed conditions from where they came from.

Any views?


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## Cayambe (13 Dec 2016)

Can we get a view of the entire tank?


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## sgdiscus (13 Dec 2016)

Cayambe said:


> Can we get a view of the entire tank?



Sure! That's a shot of the tank on 5 Dec before I shifted the positions of the b.kishii. Thanks for viewing!


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## Cayambe (14 Dec 2016)

I like it! Great "little" village


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## sgdiscus (14 Dec 2016)

Cayambe said:


> I like it! Great "little" village


Thanks!!

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## limz_777 (14 Dec 2016)

nicely done , hasnt seen any discus , do take note due to the diet of discus ,its not easy to maintain that white sand


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## sgdiscus (14 Dec 2016)

limz_777 said:


> nicely done , hasnt seen any discus , do take note due to the diet of discus ,its not easy to maintain that white sand


Thanks. I agree with on difficulty of maintaining the white sand. In fact it is slowly turning grey. 

As for the discus, I am still thinking about them and the challenges of maintaining them in a scaped tank. I am taking my time and just enjoying the tank for the moment. I know priority will change once the discus are in.

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## sgdiscus (19 Dec 2016)

Plant 1 ( picture below) - Sadly one of the three leaves wilted and dropped. Looks like another one will wilt too. Hopefully it will pull through. 



 

Plant 4 (see picture below) - even in this current position, some of its leaves were wilting as it is exposed above water. Decided to shift it to substrate to save it. Hopefully it recovers.



 


 

Caption above  - Plant 4 shifted to substrate level.


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## Costa (19 Dec 2016)

How long has that plant been in the tank? Are these cory eggs on the leaves??

Also, are there yellow bellied cories in your tank? What species is that?


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## sgdiscus (19 Dec 2016)

Costa said:


> View attachment 96089
> 
> How long has that plant been in the tank? Are these cory eggs on the leaves??
> 
> Also, are there yellow bellied cories in your tank? What species is that?


I have these plants since 26 Nov 2016. Not very long. Only about 3 weeks. But it is clear to me that I am not able to provide suitable emersed conditions for them as two of the plants had leaves that wilted away when I placed their leaves just above water.

All those that had been submersed for three weeks were observed to have growth in their roots. None of them had lost any leaves. In fact they are still looking as good as when I first bought them.

I have three types of cories in my tank and they are (1) leopard cories (2) gold laser cories and (3) davidsandis cories.

Unfortunately. .. those are not cory eggs. They are just markings on the plants.

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## Costa (19 Dec 2016)

Thanks! They very much look like eggs. 

On the subject of emersed conditions: I have learned to stop underestimating the adaptation period (although admittedly sometimes its hard to). Where I'm getting at is that your plants may be perfectly capable of growing emersed, but they will have to adapt to the new conditions. As far as I'm aware, bucephalandras do grow emersed in their natural habitat, right? 

Do you have long experience with cories? Do you know if they are egg eaters?


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## sgdiscus (20 Dec 2016)

@Costa

You are right about the bucephalandras growing emersed in their natural habitat. I suspect that the plants are melting because I was not able to provide sufficient humidity for them to grow properly. Too painful for me to watch them wilting away while their buddies in the water are doing ok.....   I don't have the courage to carry on with the experiment of letting them wilt and adjust to emerse conditions as they can be quite expensive! What I might do next time is to buy those already in emersed conditions and put them in my tank.

I have kept cories for more than 10 years BUT I have never been successful in breeding them. I am sorry I don't know if they are egg eaters. I suspect they could be but I cannot be sure because I have many other fishes in the tank.

I did manage to get the leopard cories (in my decommissioned 2ft planted tank) to lay eggs but the eggs never hatched. Fungi grew on them and they turned white. But those eggs that were on the glass remained there until I removed them. I have to search my computer for the old photos.


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## Doubu (20 Dec 2016)

The wilting is very normal from my experience with trying to grow plants emersed. This means that you have low humidity - and from Nelsons wabikusa thread he talked about slowly acclimating his plants to emersed growth (getting used to low humidity). From my testing of buce, looks like you need strong light, high oxygen and plenty of nutrients. Good luck! And good flow - was looking at their natural environments and they seem to grow on rocks very close to the river stream. 


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## sgdiscus (17 Jan 2017)

It has been awhile. 

Did some minor changes and here's the latest update to the tank. I had some BBA issue in early Dec. The BBA problem had since been resolved (https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/my-journal-for-dealing-with-bba.48003/). Have not seen any BBA growth. I have since increased aeration in the sump, added a small bag (about 300 grams of oyster shells), added a small in-tank filter and another small bag of ANS media. I have also reduced the light intensity from 85% to 70% at a duration of 5 hours. Also tone down the blue, deep blue, violet and UV lights. 

Buce Plant 1 ( please see post #51) - Sadly, it did not make it. The entire rhizome rotted away.

Buce Plant 4 (See picture below) - Based on the greenish roots, the assessment is that it is slowly recovering from the initial wilting when I planted it emersed in post #44.



 

The rest of Buce plants Number 2, 3, 5 and 6. Not much changes. I think very slow growth.

One of the more upsetting news was the death of my male Macmasteri apistogramma while I was away. My mum told me that he refused to eat the following day after I left for vacation. He just sulked at the bottom until he died.  It was as if he knew it was not me that was feeding him...... I think it was a mistake to train him to eat from my hand....

Anyway kickoff 2017 with 40 gold tetras, two mountain shrimps and a zebra pleco (could not find a good shot of him - he went immediately into a dark corner and I could not find him ever since he was released).



 

Picture above: One of the two mountain shrimps positioning itself new the outlet catching the micro particles flowing out from my sump. Have to be careful where I dose my excel.






 

Picture above: 40 new gold tetras schooling in their new home.


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## sgdiscus (18 Jan 2017)

Did a quick check this morning... was surprised to see my ph meter recording 8.36. The usual was 7.3 without CO2 and it drops to 6.9-7.0 with CO2 after an hour or so.

I tried to recall what I had done differently during a water change 2 days ago. The different things are:

1. I changed out the filter wool.
2. I removed some oyster shells from the sump. I had put in a bag of 500g oyster shell (from ANS) in Nov 2016. It had raised by ph to 7.3 and had stayed that way until my water change on Monday.
3. I double dosed Seachem Prime as I decided to put tap water directly into my tank via a hose. My usual method is to fill a plastic tub with a hose. The plastic tube is dosed with normal dosage of seachem prime. I would then transfer the water from the tub to a tank with a pump. The new method is about 10 min faster.

Things to investigate:
a. Check calibration of ph meter.
b. Water change and check ph of tap water.

Do you guys have any other opinions? Thanks



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## Shane Puthuparambil (18 Jan 2017)

Sounds pretty serious, hope you diagnosed the issue and all is well. I think it might have been your water supply, I would do a check there


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## sgdiscus (18 Jan 2017)

Quick update - did a re-calibration of the ph meter. Looks like the probe is faulty as it could not be calibrated.

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## sgdiscus (18 Feb 2017)

A quick update. Finally introduced 7 wild discus into the tank yesterday. Really excited. Let's hope they adapt well... finger cross.






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## MarkyP (18 Feb 2017)

Stunning fish  makes me want to go back into discus keeping and seeing these wilds -- I just might


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## sgdiscus (18 Feb 2017)

Finally got them eating from my hand in Day 2! I am still very cautious about how they would do in the tank. I still have CO2 at 1 bps. Just going to dose potassium and phosphorus. Will skip nitrate (calcium) for now. I am hoping the bioload will provide the N for the plants.

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## MarkyP (18 Feb 2017)

I have never used co2 in a discus tank so cant help on that - they must be quite relaxed for you to hand feed them on the second day  - what are you feeding them?


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## sgdiscus (18 Feb 2017)

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## MarkyP (18 Feb 2017)

stop teasing me with these pics  !!!!


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## sgdiscus (18 Feb 2017)

MarkyP said:


> stop teasing me with these pics  !!!!


One more for good measure... 



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## MarkyP (18 Feb 2017)

fish porn lol


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## sgdiscus (18 Feb 2017)

MarkyP said:


> I have never used co2 in a discus tank so cant help on that - they must be quite relaxed for you to hand feed them on the second day  - what are you feeding them?


I am feeding them beef heart. They had been handfed beef heart for the past two weeks by the seller. So I am just mimicking the same activities to help them settle in faster. 

I am only feeding a pinch at a time. 

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## MarkyP (18 Feb 2017)

beef heart is a good food for them but as you doing in moderation - they do need other foods as well like flake and pellets, dont feed bloodworm it has no nutritional value. I used to make a food with minced prawns/mussels/dried tubifex worms/peas/flake and vitamins my fish used to wolf it down.

Now stop post pics of your fish!!!!


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## sgdiscus (19 Feb 2017)

My pride and joy. Finger cross in ensuring the balance between discus and plants.


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## sgdiscus (12 Mar 2017)

It has been almost 1 month since the introduction of the 7 wild discus into the tank. As expected, I had to do some major changes to my routine and I thought it was time to update.

Previously, I had 6 pieces of Buce Sp. Kishii (aka Skeleton King) - labelled Plant 1 to 6. Here's an update.

Plant 1 and 2 had completely withered away. 
Plant 3 was going the same way as Plant 2 but I decided to shift it to Plant 5 location since it was doing ok.
Plant 4 is holding on.. but I don't think it will last. 
Plant 6 is doing ok but not fantastic. 

I fear I will eventually lose all of them given that the priority is now on the discus.

I also had a water lily at the right side of the tank. Sadly it is withering away despite my best effort to out a few root tabs around it. 

The rest of the plants are doing ok but I am monitoring them closely as I have stopped dosing nitrates and phosphates. This is because the bioload of my tank had gone up a fair bit. I am only maintaining potassium and CO2.

My pH pen is due for a calibration so don't really know my pH for now. But kH is between 2 and 3 and gH is around 9 and 10. Nitrite and Ammonia is zero and Nitrate is around 40 ppm. 

Without further ado... here's the current pictures of my tank...



 

 

I guess the discus had pretty much taken over the tank and the plants and the scape are now their background... I suppose that is much preferred as opposed to the discus being in the background and plants in the foreground.


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## sgdiscus (1 Apr 2017)

Happy April's Fool!



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## sgdiscus (1 Apr 2017)

Can you spot the trick to get the discus all lined up in direction for the photo shoot? 



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## Tim Harrison (1 Apr 2017)

Beautiful fish and looking very happy


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## zozo (1 Apr 2017)

sgdiscus said:


> Can you spot the trick to get the discus all lined up in direction for the photo shoot?



You have some delicious cookies in your hand at the right?


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## sgdiscus (2 Apr 2017)

zozo said:


> You have some delicious cookies in your hand at the right?


They happen to contain beefheart...  

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## Alex J (2 Apr 2017)

Beautiful fish, leaves all those gaudy, plastic looking morphs way behined. But that's just my opinion  

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## sgdiscus (2 Apr 2017)

Alex J said:


> Beautiful fish, leaves all those gaudy, plastic looking morphs way behined. But that's just my opinion
> 
> Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk


Thank you!

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## Eduard18 (3 Apr 2017)

F... the plants , especially for wild caught discus , they've never seen any ! Magnificent fish ! If I were you I would order some botanicals from Tannin Aquatics , ASAP !


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## dw1305 (4 Apr 2017)

Hi all, 





Eduard18 said:


> F... the plants , especially for wild caught discus , they've never seen any !


I know there aren't any plants (other than floating ones) in the areas where Discus are collected at low water, but I think they will see plenty of plants when they are foraging in the flooded forest during high water. 

In Crampton's 2008 paper <"
In volumetric terms, _Symphysodon haraldi_ appeared to feed predominantly on a mixture of algal periphyton, fine organic detritus and green plant matter. These three categories were combined into a single category because of practical difficulties in separating them. Nonetheless, green plant matter in the form of triturated leaves probably represented no more than 15% of the total volume (a crude estimate). Of the remaining material, it was hard to distinguish between partially digested periphyton and fine organic detritus - which comprises mainly decomposing plant residues.
Ecology and life history of an Amazon floodplain cichlid: the discus fish _Symphysodon _(Perciformes: Cichlidae)">, it says that their lives are basically on hold at low water until the water rises again. 





> ...During the low water period, discus in Uxi Bay and lago Urini were only captured in galhadas or flooded shore scrub. None were found on muddy or sandy beaches (48 seine nets), on beaches vegetated with wild rice (_Oryza_) (20 seine nets), in patches of _Cyperus_ (55 m2 with seine net), or in open lake water (210 m2 gill net x 10 nights)....





> ...At high water, discus colonies dispersed into flooded forests and dense shore scrub. Samples of the galhadas containing the single large discus aggregation in Uxi Bay were conducted on 1 December 1998, 2 weeks (and a 2.5 m water level rise) after the colony was last sampled. No discus were encountered, even though the net was still able to reach the bottom and efficiently sample the galhada. During nightly observations in flooded forests during the high water period, discus were often seen alone or in groups of up to six, but never in larger groups. During the peak of the flood season 82% (237/289) of discus were seen in dense shore scrub or in forests with trees of moderate height (< 15 m). The remaining 18% were found in more shaded _igapó_ forests dominated by high trees (15 - 25 m)....





> ......Periphyton comprises multi-species filamentous algal communities covering the branches and leaves of flooded forests. Periphyton represents a major form of primary production, and an important source of energy for floodplain fish populations...


cheers Darrel


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## dw1305 (4 Apr 2017)

Hi all, 
Apologies I don't quite know what happened with the formatting of that post, it should have said:
In Crampton's 2008 paper <"Ecology and life history of an Amazon floodplain cichlid: the discus fish _Symphysodon _(Perciformes: Cichlidae)">, it says that their lives are basically on hold at low water until the water rises again.





> In volumetric terms, _Symphysodon haraldi_ appeared to feed predominantly on a mixture of algal periphyton, fine organic detritus and green plant matter. These three categories were combined into a single category because of practical difficulties in separating them. Nonetheless, green plant matter in the form of triturated leaves probably represented no more than 15% of the total volume (a crude estimate). Of the remaining material, it was hard to distinguish between partially digested periphyton and fine organic detritus - which comprises mainly decomposing plant residues.


cheers Darrel


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## sgdiscus (5 Apr 2017)

@dw1305

Thank you Darrel! Very interesting read. 

@Eduard18

I did consider going Amazonian biotope. Having checked around the various setups... decided to just follow my heart and go with a planted layout instead.

But that's not to say that I won't go to a black water look at some point down the road. I do follow Tannin Aquatic on instagram. They have some awesome setups.

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## zozo (5 Apr 2017)

sgdiscus said:


> I did consider going Amazonian biotope.



This whole biotope concept is a bit of a strange misconception anyway imho. No matter how big a tank is, compaired to nature it is just a very tiny snapshot of a certain scenery.. But the biotope is actualy the whole package, the jungle and the river or stream over it's intire length. The living creatures in it aren't living stanionairy in one particular few cubic meter spot. They live a nomadic life, and travel from one biotope to another biotope if you would like to view it like that. But in reality it is one biotope that changes.. So to a certain degree you already have a biotope tank..  Even more if you only plant and stock from the same region..


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## sgdiscus (5 Apr 2017)

zozo said:


> This whole biotope concept is a bit of a strange misconception anyway imho. No matter how big a tank is, compaired to nature it is just a very tiny snapshot of a certain scenery.. But the biotope is actualy the whole package, the jungle and the river or stream over it's intire length. The living creatures in it aren't living stanionairy in one particular few cubic meter spot. They live a nomadic life, and travel from one biotope to another biotope if you would like to view it like that. But in reality it is one biotope that changes.. So to a certain degree you already have a biotope tank..  Even more if you only plant and stock from the same region..



Unfortunately, I don't plants and stocks from the same region.. I just have plants and stocks that we (my family) like and are pleasing to the eye!


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## zozo (5 Apr 2017)

sgdiscus said:


> Unfortunately, I don't plants and stocks from the same region.. I just have plants and stocks that we (my family) like and are pleasing to the eye!


That's much more important. The fish don't mind. Fortunately..  But i know the feeling.. Tho my idea of biotope is different i think more in themes.. So i liked an Asian (India/Mayamar) theme.. But financial strains ruined the idea and had to choose Anubias instead of Bucephalandra as epiphyte. A plaster on the wound was finding a picture from an Anubias growing in the wild in Indonesia. As we have excotics growing in our nature they have too.. If it is introduced by men, then it is part of the biotope, since we are part of it too.  So what the heck i did also put a bolbitis in and a cultivar nymphaea. These things happen in reality so why not in my biotope tank.. 

Then on the other hand i see people claiming to have a biotope tank and throw in local Alder cones and oak leaves..


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## sgdiscus (15 Apr 2017)

Happy Easter!



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## Ryan Thang To (15 Apr 2017)

Wow!!!!

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## MarkyP (15 Apr 2017)

love this tank, the fish look well happy


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## mike L (15 Apr 2017)

Stunning..!!


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## Jakes (16 Apr 2017)

Great setup not jealous at all!!


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## sgdiscus (21 May 2017)

May 2017 - Water Change Day!



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## GPaul (21 May 2017)

Love your tank,  for discus 


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## castle (21 May 2017)

zozo said:


> This whole biotope concept is a bit of a strange misconception anyway imho. No matter how big a tank is, compaired to nature it is just a very tiny snapshot of a certain scenery.. But the biotope is actualy the whole package, the jungle and the river or stream over it's intire length. The living creatures in it aren't living stanionairy in one particular few cubic meter spot. They live a nomadic life, and travel from one biotope to another biotope if you would like to view it like that. But in reality it is one biotope that changes.. So to a certain degree you already have a biotope tank..  Even more if you only plant and stock from the same region..



I can't speak for all fishes; but it's known in a couple of rivers I frequent, and was stated in a couple of decent books that fish (primarily Barbel) would if not engaged, or predated would spend their entire life within the run of a group weeds.


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## zozo (21 May 2017)

castle said:


> I can't speak for all fishes; but it's known in a couple of rivers I frequent, and was stated in a couple of decent books that fish (primarily Barbel) would if not engaged, or predated would spend their entire life within the run of a group weeds.



If it has no migratory instincts to breed, it'll probably follow it's nose for shelter and food.. If one of the 2 runs out it has to move or its life is soon over.
And if there is enough of it, why would it move.. 

But i more mean to say that even a almost plantless lake or river part, likely has parts or other feeding rivers and streams where plants still do make up a great deal of that biotope in the big picture, marginal vegitation included. So creating a 1000 litre snapshot of a scenery without plants is heardly to call an accurate biotope. If you to come closer to that, you would need to create a riparium with marginal vegitation and no submersed growth.


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## sgdiscus (6 Aug 2017)

Quick update. For sharing please.  

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## sgdiscus (6 Aug 2017)

For sharing. 



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## sgdiscus (9 Aug 2017)

Could not resist a photo moment as they were in formation. for sharing please. 



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## ir0nma1den (9 Aug 2017)

Those are some huge discus!


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## sgdiscus (1 Oct 2017)

Hello October!! Water change day yesterday.  They are getting more comfortable with each WC. They will start nibbling my hand when I siphon the debris. 

They have also progress to eat papaya as part of their meals.





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## Chrispowell (1 Oct 2017)

Beautiful tank, beautiful discus. I used to find the high levels of protein in beef heart would discolour light substrate quite quickly. Any issues with that? 

I used to change 75% water a day but would siphon whenever needed, these were Stendker though. Not wilds


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## sgdiscus (1 Oct 2017)

Chrispowell said:


> Beautiful tank, beautiful discus. I used to find the high levels of protein in beef heart would discolour light substrate quite quickly. Any issues with that?
> 
> I used to change 75% water a day but would siphon whenever needed, these were Stendker though. Not wilds


I used to feed beedheart twice a day when I first got them. But since July, I decided to cut down feeding frequency to about to 5 or 6 times a week (once a day). I change 50% water twice a week.. and sometimes once a week.

The use the cotton wool media as a guide. When I fed them beefheart twice a day, my filter wool would turn black by Day 3. 

However, the substrate are turning brown/green not because of beefheart but due to algae. I should have gone brown sand. But too late to change.

I also treat the tank with 2ppm of PP once a month. This helped to reduce organics in the water and helps to maintain water quality.

Since moving to a lighter feeding regime, I observed the following:

1. My filter wool turns black in about 10 days.

2. These babies are actually more active and aggressive during feeding times. I think that was a factor in them eating papayas.




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## Chrispowell (1 Oct 2017)

Great to hear, lovely fish when things are going well! Plants look very healthy too. Great job


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