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6ft Sumped Discus Tank

NorthernDan said:
The Discus won't be going in for a while yet. I'm hoping it'll be planted up enough and the colony will be big enough to cope with the inevitable predation.
Yea they are random flow generators. I'm quite liking them at the moment. They definitely kill flow with a more scattered pattern. But that's perfect for me in this system as it allows me to put some reasonable flow through the tank (I have 3500 and 2500lph pumps) while still keeping a relatively still tank for the Discus. No factual research behind it but I also like the way it disperses the co2 from the reactor. They were only a couple quid from AliExpress so worth a go.
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The actual Scape looks excellent despite the issues you've had with that brown filamentous algae. I don't think you'll have that problem again once it clears up.

But having looked closely again at your excellent scape, I'm beginning to second guess your choice of Discus as the future inhabitants. As much as I applaud anyone who goes down the route of a planted Discus tank, I have to think about my own experiences over 35 + years, the failures and successes.

Scapes are all about size and perspective, ratios and scale. So if I try to imagine a shoal of 8 to 10 fully grown adult Discus in your tank, and think about their size and perspective, in relation to the space available within the scape, and the choice of wood and branches, shape and size, the perspective becomes out of kilter.

Don't take this as a criticism, the scape is perfect for the right choice of fish, but I'm beginning to think Discus maybe the wrong choice.
A shoal of Juvenile Discus, say 2 to 3 inches might look okay to begin with. But they don't stay juveniles for ever and will soon out grow the scape.

A few schools of two or three smaller shoaling species would look absolutely awesome because they are in harmony with the scape. Obviously you will make your own decision, I'm just giving you the benefit of my experience and wish you all the best with it.

Here is a link to a video in YouTube of a Planted Discus Scape I did years ago. It was stripped down eventually because of the reasons given above.

 
Beautiful job, real potential plant wise

I hope to be setting up at 6 foot tank myself in the next few weeks I’m planning on using a sump, I’ve never used the freshwater sump before, I’ll be following your thread with interest
 
Small update on this one!
The tanks generally being running great. Getting half decent plant growth, tank is maturing to a stage I'm excited about.

About a month ago I got another big load of Java Ferns of various types from @Tucker90 unfortunately I did get a little die back as expected with moving them so a couple weeks back I gave them a good trim, got rid of all the dead or dying leaves. The root balls on these are huge (originally there was probably double the mass you see in the pictures) and I'm already seeing little green leaves coming back after the heavy pruning.

Some of you may or may have followed the week aqua thread and I've had issues with only being able to have my lights on 100%. That combined with struggling to get co2 consistent initially meant the little bit BBA I had turned into a huge amount of BBA. The co2 has now been running steady for ages and I'm pleased to report I finally got my lights to do what I want. They are now on 50% plus an hour shorter photo period. This has resulted in a huge decline of the BBA. It's mainly on the rocks now, and I'm sure the Siamese Algae Eaters will clear up the rest.

Stocking wise again pleased to report everything is thriving. Cory's are about 15-17 strong and breeding like mad, a few Siamese Algae Eaters, 5 Otto's, Cherry Shrimp and a couple Nerites make up the Discus clean up crew (or possibly food in the Cherries case).

Discus should hopefully be going in soon.

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Thanks for reading 👍
 
Whenever there are hard-edged rocks in use I can't avoid the feeling that a landscape (in contrast to submerged biotope) has been emulated.
 
My Discus are in!
As previously said my plan was to go with probably some Red Turqs of hopefully 4"+ plus in size as I didn't really want the hassle of smaller ones, however I was tempted by some F1's from some truly stunning Wild Royal Blues. Buying decent sized ones of these would of completely blew my budget so I opted for some 2-2.5".
After not keeping them for quite a few years I'd forgot how nervous these little blighters make you the first couple days when they arent eating and looking generally pissed off. Pleased to say though they are now eating like pigs on my own seafood mix, including happily taking it out my hand.
Couple pictures of the parents
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And a little video of my tank and a feeding 👍20220916_193001.mp4
 
Wow awsum tank and a really good thread of alot of knowledge fish keepers. Enjoyed reading all this. Thanks
 
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