Discus Plants & Large Stone Gravel NEW BEE

[msebar]

I have a 90G tank just setup waiting for the break in. The gravel is large stone thumb size mixed with pinky size. I will be puting in discus along with some live plants I hope. When I say some I mean like 10 plants total. I already have some fake one in there and I thought by adding some live will help the water quality and the look. I also will be adding in some driftwood.

Here are my questions. ( I am a novice plant person)

Will this work or am I asking for trouble?

Should I add some sand to the gravel to prevent left over food and other things from getting too deep into the gravel and helping the plants to root?

Will this increase my matinace by much?

Any help would be great.

Also what kind of plants should I use. Must be low light, low ph and handle high temps.

Thanks Mike

[Barry N]

Hi Mike,

Personally I've found the large size gravel does not work that great as the plants find it difficult to establish good root systems. I' be going for a finer size. The bottom of the tank coul have a plant substrate with the larger stuff on top for decoration.

You will need to gravel clean the open spaces frequently.

Plants - I always do fine with Swords, Crypts etc. You could just go for Annubias on your driftwood as well.

[msebar]

Can I add sand to the the top of the gravel and work it down to the botton by moving the larger rocks back and forth?

[ILLUSN]

sand compacts and goes anerobic, your better off growing your plants in pots and hidiing the pots in the gravel.

for plants go for the hardy swords and lotus (tiger lotus etc) ludwiga spp and hydrophila spp also do quite well.

even with these plants aim for atleast 2w/g, or stick with fake plants.