Newbie 1st question

[marwil]

Hi all Ithought I'd introduce myself and ask a question if thats ok. I am in the process of setting up a 69 gallon tank primarily for discus and wondered what would be the best set up for discus and plants. I have had a full dennerle set up in the past which was great for a couple of months then it all went pearshaped so I must get it right this time or I will suffer the wrath of my wife . I intend to use a eheim 2329 wet and dry thermo aquaponics co2 as I already have these. Any suggestions on substrate etc would be most welcome I was toying with using either seachem flourite or a sand based with something like tropica underneath. Any suggestions would be most gratefully recieved.
Thanks
Mark.

 

[Dacious]

Hi,

Welcome to UKAPS! Well substrate wise it's completely up to you, for example you might have price constraints etc. But at the moment I am using a JBL substrate in a 12" cube tank and this seems to be working really well. However, this has to be topped of with another substrate to keep it in place. In another of my tanks I am using Red Sea florabase which requires no "topping" and no pretreatment, you just simply drop it in. This is more expensive but much less hassle. Then there is the ADA substrate. These come in a variety of colours, pH altering properties, coarseness etc. However, these do leach a lot of ammonia once the tank is up and running so you will have to really have the tank up and running for a while before placing any discus in.

Maybe, if you post up more details of what you are after we can be more specific, e.g. certain plants you want to grow, light levels, a certain look you want to achieve, price range and so on.

Hope this helps!

 

[Ed Seeley]

Have a look here for a general idea of one way to have succesful higher tech planted tank. I'm sure discus will thrive ina tank with Aquasoil as you wouldn't want to add them to newly estblished tank anyway and once the initial ammonia leaching is over it is an excellent substrate; the best I've used by miles. It also allows you to be a lot leaner of the fertiliser dosing without getting problems which could be a distinct advantage with discus, especially if you want to breed them and get the TDS down low or want to keep wild ones.