Planted Discus tank

• To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
• Subject: Planted Discus tank
• From: krandall at world_std.com (Karen A Randall)
• Date: Thu, 19 Sep 1996 13:49:25 -0400

Subject: Planted Discus tank
Dionigi wrote:
 
> I have been keeping a planted discus tank for more than a year n
> after initial cyanobacteria problems (due to lack of information
> promote healthy plant growth), the tank has been basically algae
> least six months... if you have vigorously growing plants yo
> likely to be able to afford some extra input of nutrients from f
> have 5 discus in a 180 gal tank , and at the last few testings I
> (nitrates, phosphates) the levels were so low that I decided to 
> adequate bioload margin to add a couple more 

Congratulations!  You have learned what is so hard to get across 
to others... The kind of space (and water volume) necessary to 
have a really good balance of fish to plants in a planted Discus 
tank.  The _biggest problem with planted Discus tanks is that 
people tend to want to put 8 Discus in a planted 55G tank. _That_ 
is a hard tank to keep in equilibrium and reasonably algae free.

I kept 4 Discus in a 55G fully planted tank for over a year, and 
feel that was pushing the limits.  To keep algae at bay and 
phosphate levels down I needed to change 50% of the water twice a 
week, and _still_ use a phosphate reducing resin in the filters.  
When the Discus started to get "spawny"  I decided I was tired of 
all the work involved and gave them to a freind who wanted tos et 
them up as breeders.  It was a good learning experience, and a 
_stunning_ display, but too much work for me!<g>

Karen Randall
Aquatic Gardeners Assoc.
Boston, MA

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