Help - i'm confused- New planted Discus tank

[needspeed73]

Hi all,
I already have a 3 foot Discus tank with 5 Juvenile Discus. It is lightly planted Twin T5, NO CO2 and no substrate - just gravel. Surprisingly plants dont last!!! I have bought another 4X2X2 tank for the Discus. I want to plant it but not heavily and avoid CO2. Is substrate and lighting enough? Happy to take my time to get this one right from the start. I only have 1 problem. I live in Darwin and there is basically NOTHING here. LFS's are pet shops with little knowledge. I will have to ship everything up!
Thanks for any suggestions

Ian

[Ghoti]

First up Ian, I cannot recommend Dave from Aquagreen highly enough. Great plants, happy to advise, great service. Aquagreen is on the internet, and based in NT!

Secondly, gravel basically has no nutrition so root feeding plants would starve to death waiting for the detritus to build up sufficiently to feed them. If you are doing regular water changes to keep your nitrates low, there will be little nutrients in the water column so stem feeders will also starve.

Plants like Anubias and Java Fern are slow growing so have low demands on lighting and nutruients. Also being rhizome plants they are attached to driftwood, so your substrate is not important (heck, even go bare bottom!). They also cope well with the temps Discus require.

I also find Amazon Swords and Crypts do well in my tank, but they are heavy root feeders and will either need a nutritious substrate or at the very least root tabs beneath them.

There are quite a number of undemanding low light plants you can grow in your Discus tank. Just check out what they need if you want to be successful. Once you start to consider the more exotic plants then you'll have to consider better lighting, CO2, fertilising etc.

Cheers,
Scott

[needspeed73]

Scott,
Thankyou for the contact at Aquagreen. He is an immense wealth of knowledge. My faith in Darwin aquariums is restored. He has invited me out there on Saturday. Will post further information for all Saturday night.
Thanks HEAPS
Ian

[prenzi]

Yes, I can only agree 150 % to all this - Dave is bliss for anyone far north, but also anywhere else in the country. Great plants, great prices and great advice. Give him a try & you won't be disappointed.

Liverpool Creek Aquariums is another plant heaven up north; they are on the web as well, and they have superb plants.

[needspeed73]

Well.....
I went to see Dave this morning. He has an amazing amount of knowledge in that head.
Showed my wife an i around the growing ponds. Showed us the native fish, native shrimp and his phyto plankton(?) under the microscopes. Unbelieveable.
He then proceeded to make a substrate mix based on the Discus requirements, and the gravel and the trace elements and... gave me a sh!t load of driftwood. So im now about 2 weeks ahead of where i planned the new tank. ie Tank is filled!! My only problem is lighting, My new lights dont arrive for another week!!
Im not complaining tho. I showed him a picture of what i wanted and now i have it. PERFECT.
Thankyou very much Dave.
How do i post photos??

[needspeed73]

Just thought i would post a "Cloudy" Photo. Waiting for lights to arrive......