New tank

[Badilidon]

I have just purchased a 75 gallon tank. I have a few questions about what i should do. How much current do discus like? I am thinking of a Fluval 404 and a 104 for filtration. I am also thinking of doing a sparsley planted setup with flourite base and fine sand on top for the plants. I currently have no lights but I have a hood. What Lighting setup/ bulbs would you recommend?
Any opinions are appreciated.

[kalebjarrod]

discus don't like a rushing flow so spray bars do wonders,

discus also don't need great lighting, but the plants you chosse may
if so pick on end of you tank for high light, plant it heavily and use the plants to shade this end, add smaller less light hungry plants at the other perhaps even leaving it as free free swiming space

the lighting will depend on your planting, again if you what high light loving plants different lighting and CO2 may be needed

check http://www.plantgeek.net/ for your planting requirements, those guys and gals rock


hope that helps

[Essayons89]

Discus tank should have good filtration but they don't like a lot current in the tank. They also don't like bright lighting. Unless you plan on keeping high light demanding plants, 2wpg is sufficient.

I have a 75 gallon planted discus tank that I'm running two Aquaclear 500's on. I think that a combination of the Fluval 404 and a HOB such as the AC 500 or an Emperor 400 would be a good combination.

Personally I would use either an all sand substrate or a mix of Flourite of gravel but not both sand and Flourite. The sand will settle and eventually cause the Flourite to rest on top of it. If you go with all sand, the addition of root tabs would benefit any heavy root feeding plants that you may put in the tank (ie-Amazon swords, Valisneria).

I have a Flourite/gravel mix (75/25 mix) with a large Amazon sword, a Rotala species, a couple different types of Val including Jungle val, Wisteria, Java ferns and Java moss. The tank has 2wpg and gets dosed with ferts a couple of times a week. I also have some floating plant cover to dim the lighting in spots.

bryan

[Badilidon]

In this photo the owner used Flourite and sand(around 180 to 200lbs was the ratio). I am trying to replicate that look. http://article.discusnews.com/dph-project/tankofthemonth/images/dec2001-2.jpg

[Essayons89]

That's a great looking tank, looks like the flourite is under a deep bed of sand. That should work out pretty well.

Bryan

[africandiscus]

How do you vacuume the sand

[Essayons89]

I have sand in my Tanganyikan tanks. The detritus sits on top of the sand. To vac, all you do is hover the gravel vacuum over the sand to remove the waste. A little sand does get sucked out in the process but not much.

Stirring the sand during a water change and vac will also help to keep aenerobic pickets from forming in the sand. Malaysian Trumpet Snails can also be used to serve the same purpose. They burrow through the sand during the day.

Bryan

[kalebjarrod]

nothing nicer than a tank of discus and the correct plants

most of the mullim will sit in the lower coners, just "hover" the vac over these areas

too easy, high light tank though, this will freckle your pigeons!

[Badilidon]

So a small ammount of flourite under a deep bed of sand would prevent it from settling?