Hello from Brisbane.....!!!!

[Matt15]

Hello everyone....!!!

I've been keeping Discus for almost a year now and couldn't think of anything more worthly of my hard earned dollars. They are truely a beautiful fish.

I live on the Northside of Brisbane, but shop for my prized prosessions all over the great southeast. I have only a 3ft planted tank with 6 Discus at this stage. Each month I move further and further past the minister of war and finance (the wife) to having more fish and a larger tank.

I look forward to sharing my experiences and also drawning from others here.

Cheers Matt

P.S. If there is one thing i love most, its seening other peoples fish and tanks so i'll start off with a few of my own. In the next few weeks i'll post some more specific pictures asking for advice and opinions.

[Merrilyn]

Welcome to the forum Matt.

Love your tank set up :P

Looking forward to more photos.

[Mr Discus]

Hey Matt - great looking setup you have there - looks very similar to mine in many ways! Great minds! :wink:

Where abouts on the northside are you? I live at Murrumba Downs. I am curious to know what LFS you use, and where you have sourced your Discus from?

Also, how are you looking after your plants? Have you got fertiliser under the gravel (I can't see any). Only reason I ask is I am running straight gravel, and just placing some fert balls under the relevant plants, and giving daily doses of liquid fert for the rest.

Can't wait to see more pics mate.

Cheers.

Josh.

[Matt15]

Hey Josh,

I've just replied to your thread offering advice about purchasing your discus ;) I'd be more than happy to go shopping with you and your wife. I live in Chermside and would love to chat about lfs all over the Brisbane area.
I watch 3 shops on a regular basis here on the northside and visit a few on the southside when i have the time. Do you use MSN?

Yes your tank is very simular.... just taller..:( (i'm jealous)

I have straight gravel and only use a Sera florena plant fertilizer once a week after water changes. My plants are healthy and they are always growing. I think the T5 lighing plays a huge role there too.

[Mr Discus]

Thanks for the reply in the other thread Matt. I watch a few shops as well. I do have MSN, I just don't really get on as much as I used to. Swing me your email via PM anyway and I will try and get on more when I'm on the net.

Yes our tanks are very similar - but yeah I wanted the taller tank specifically for discus, plus deeper tanks have always impressed me more aesthetically. I do love the variety of discus you have though - I am jealous of that! :D

Thats reassuring to hear that your plants are thriving with your setup. What sort of T5 lighting are you running? What bulbs?

Look forward to hearing from you mate.

[Matt15]

Would you believe my next project is to get a taller tank. The past week or so i've been looking up prices/suppliers, so maybe it will happen soon.

Mate you can't have a discus tank without having a variety of colours. I can easily sit and watch them swim around for hours.

The T5 i have is a 'handmedown' from my brother, who i believe was using it on a marine setup. I might be wrong, but never the less the plants love it. All i can tell you is that one bulb is blue and the other is fluro.

[Mr Discus]

Sounds like a twin T5 setup with one Triphosphor and one Actinic bulb.

Those two bulbs together are bread and butter for marine setups, they work incredibly well for what they are.

I am surprised that your plants react so well to it though, as plants tend to like light from the red end of the spectrum, not the blue end. But hey if it works and has treated you well for 12 months then don't fix whats not broken!

[Matt15]

Funny you should say that cause if you look at the cript in the photos the ends of the leaves are curving over almost like they are being burnt or the temp is too hot.
Other than that, eveything is growing and fine.

[Mr Discus]

Well, plants like corals are pretty forgiving (as far as intensity of light goes most of the time). They will tend to try and adjust themselves over time to the amount of light they are receiving, either by growing at a different rate, not growing at all, or in your case, changing shape to alter the amount of light they take in.

To me those crypts look like they are curling to reduce the surface area that is taking the light in. Like you said on MSN to me, the lights in your setup are on for a pretty long period in the day, and if that is the case then the lighting duration needs to be reduced, to something like 8 or 9 hours a day. Any more than that tends to be an overkill.

If you try that out and see what happens, you might find that the crypts tend to flatten out more and uncurl their leaves.

If you get the opposite reaction after a couple of weeks (the plants start going backwards so to speak), then increase the time a little and see what happens.

But like I said they are pretty forgiving as long as they have the nutrients in the water that they need, they tend to adjust themselves to the light level supplied - as long as you are using the correct lighting equipment in the first place of course, which you are.

[Matt15]

Light routine has changed... fingers crossed the leaves will flatten out more. Thx for the advice Josh :)