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Re: Discus and Planted Tanks
Colin Anderson wrote:
There's excellent disease and growth rate knowledge on the Discus-L list,
give it a try. But my experience is that there's not much talk of planted
aquaria w/ discus. Planted Discus tanks are a precarious
balance, a step up from planted tanks in my opinion.
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Hi Colin,
I am on the Discus-L list too and there is a lot
of knowledge there; however, there is also a lot
of Discus lore. I think many of the regular contributers
on the list are breeders with large numbers of fish
and are biased towards the bare bottomed tank.
This makes sense if you are keeping and breeding
a large number of fish, but for people like me
who just want to make a nice display, it is limiting.
I have considered telling some of them to read this
list, especially after I was told by several people
that it was impossible to have almost unreadable
nitrate levels in a planted tank with discus, which
I have regularly had, as well as some other contributers
to that list.
Discus can be kept healthy in a planted tank. Make the
temperature 82-84F, choose plants that can take those
temperatures, quarenteen all additions to the tank, and
do weekly water changes. They should be fine.
I am currently reestablishing my tanks (I have recently
moved), and I am actually going to raise my discus up
to about 5" in a bare bottom tank, just to see if it
makes a difference. But, as soon as they are up to that
size, into the planted tank they go.
Joe Sachleben
jsachleb at chemistry_ohio-state.edu