starting a planted discus tank

[elphenomenon]

hi
i've been keeping a few discus for several months and now want to try keeping them in a planted tank as ive seen some pretty nice pics on this forum and sort of quite jelous. in a good way ofcourse!

i've been reading several posts about a plant setup and still feel like i don't know anything. i know i need some substrate, fertilizers, co2 something, and a good light to get started. they all seem so expensive.

what would be a cheap approach to a setup like this? as money is a big factor for me.

i'm looking to setup up a 4' tank only mediumly planted. btw some tanks have this grassy looking plant covering a lot of the substrate surface. what are they called?

cheers louie

[apistodiscus]

the grassy plants you are referring to are probably Echinodorus tenellus. I don't recommend them since they attract dirt like nothing else unless you have a tank cleaning fetish to keep them clean of all debris :lol:

Try Echinodorus quadricostatus. A bit bigger but a lot easier on the maintenance and you will not require as much light, CO2 and fertilizer either.

Don't worry about buying those expensive bulbs that the aquarium trade is offering for the planted tank. Get one warmwhite and one coldwhite bulb or multiples therof and you'll be Ok.


What plants did you have in mind?

[ILLUSN]

apistodiscus is right about E.tenellus being a magnet for dirt, unfortunately most low growing "lawns" are, i've had the best reults growing java moss on slate as a lawn, when you clean the tank, take it ff, give it a shake in a bucket of clean water (or tank water) and put it back in. easy as.

if you want to do a plant tank on a budget, think smart. grow your plants in pots, that way you use less expensive substrate (or you can use a diy substrate of vermculite + clay). fill around the pots with some cheep 3mm aquarium gravel (colour of your choice)

choose plants that dont need a lot of light (and hence not a lot of ferts or co2), amazon swords and some of the newer culitvars like E.devils eye, E.tropica do very well with 2w/gal(us) they look fantastic and are very undemanding.

use easy to grow fast growers for nutrient uptake, 2 of the best are blue sticta and wysteria (hydrophilla difformus), to be honest of the green hydrophilla species will do. java moss is another great sponge plant that grows anyware.

whith this kind of approach, you wont need high light 2w/US Gal will be plenty. id use growlux tube, the CRI is fantasic, your discus will never look better and online they're only $3 more then crappy tubes from bunnings.

if you NEED co2 (in a low light low tech tank you wont) DIY will proably be more then enough (this wont cost you $5 a month for yeast and sugar).

again in a low tech tank you wont need ferts, just a bit of NPK for the swords every 2 months or so and maybe a clayball or florish tab every 6 months.

theres no reason you can have a lush planted tank on a budget, they dont need to be the $5000 monster that i have. I'm doing a low thech low maintenace densly planted tank at the moment for dads loungeroom. no co2 and 2w/gal. I'll put up some photos when its done.

[apistodiscus]

or just get hold of some clay and make peas sized balls. Let tthem dry and squeeze in amongst the roots. Works fine for me