Adrienne

Are you talking 'garden' soil? If so, what is your reason behind using it?

agreed - veiltail blue/green or aqua, not bad looking either. Will be fine in a tank with the listed fish.

I'd already taken the pic, just had not posted it. This is at 2 per second

Thanks for all your kind comments. Ron, I don't think the discus can get in behind a lot to hide! However one has ventured to the other end of the tank

Look at the plant section of this forum for lots of good info. Babysitting - you can be proud that you are the absolute owner of your tank.

150cmL x 45cmD x 60cm H

Yes, better than the original. This time I have the plant side of things well sorted thanks to a lot of patient people assisting me in the plants section of this forum. Stocking is a lot different to the first tank too. This time 4 discus, 17 sterbai cory, 4 long fin bn, 5 bn, 1 tiger plec, 4 clown loaches, 23 harlequins and 16 young rams in the tank. Last time there were more small tetras as my plants didn't take up much space. The best part - no bba!

Four months after a series of tank crashes that wiped out 5 of my 6 discus to say nothing of some of the other tanks inhabitants I have finally completed restocking my planted community tank. Thank you so much to the forum members who have put up with my endless questions and have gone out of their way to assist me. To those who have supplied me with plants, CO2 parts, fish and encouragement I can't say thank you enough. These pictures were taken today. I hope you like them

I've got sagittaria microfolia if you are interested. All you need to do is come around and collect it. I'm trying to reduce the amount in my tank Pics are in my restarting tank thread in the freshwater section and maybe in my latest thread in this section. Yep definitely in my thread 'a couple of pics' in this section - just checked.

scissors are always good - I have to clip my tank about 3 times a week at the moment

Does anyone have any suggestions for gagaforfish?

To very valid comments. My question - why do you want to breed? Because you want to see if you can or because you want it to be a money making venture?

A very good question indeed. From my experience by the time you breed it and grow it out you find that what people want has changed - yet again. Easy to breed, easy to rear fish are probably in reality the best way to go because they are cheaper to buy, people buy more. If they are cheap and they die they are then just replaced. Sounds very cynical doesn't it :roll:

I'd be interested in peoples opinions about using sand in a planted tank with discus.

Thats not very sensible, is it? Straight val is not allowed in Auckland, in fact I think it may not be allowed anywhere, however twisted val is.

For ideas have a look at previous posts through the freshwater section and plants section on this forum. You will also find links to other sites with lovely aquariums. What sort of filter are you going to run on the tank and what sort of lights do you have. You will need a filter that at a minimum turns the 90 litres (approx) over at least 4 times an hour. If it was me I would go for an external cannister filter and because I like plenty of turnover I would probably use a 1000lph cannister. My suggestion would be to go for a non sand substrate as sand can go up the filter intakes if stirred up on cannister filters and sand can harbour nasty bacteria if not kept well aerated. You can get nice looking fine gravel substrates. Depending on how you want the plants to grow you can put down a fertiliser type substrate under the gravel or you could use fertiliser balls (for plants like swords) and liquid fertilisers. Lighting also plays a big part in the growing of plants. For your first efforts at a tank with plants the easier plants to grow are things like java fern, mosses, cabomba, indian fern. Guppies, platys, mollys, swordtails are fairly easy to keep and will happy breed for you if you have males and females of each. You could then sell the resulting fry which would bring you in a small return to help with the costs. Its a good idea to have a few fish that are bottom dwellers as well to clean the bottom of the tank i.e. bn, corys and the bn will also nibble at the algae which is bound to grow. Have a search through the forums and if you have any questions ask away. There are plenty of people on here willing to share experiences and ideas with you.

Still doesn't mean they are going to survive by the time they have been through the quarantine process, then to the pet shop tanks, then to your tanks. Thats a lot of stressful bagging, travelling and different water conditions to get used to and most of these will have water shared by multiple tanks. Four weeks in a tank at your own place under conditions you can control is a decent length of time and this way you can make sure the fish is healthy and has adequate food to build it up.

My young siamese fighters (1cm) will eat bn fry and pick at bn bigger than themselves until they kill them if given a chance. I believe they think that if it moves its food. :roll:

haha - absolutely no liquid atm as I have run out and need to save for some more. JBL balls under the swords roots. Normally flourish excel at 1 1/2 X standard dose daily and flourish comprehensive every 3 - 4 days.

Mine is due to arrive this week so hopefully it will be the correct size or I'll be joining KP and complaining as well. If I keep some aside to grow in a pot is this just like growing a pot plant or do I need to do something else :roll:

No improvement except that turning off the T5HO lighting seems to slow it. The up side to everything is that the plants are growing so fast I just keep pruning the bits with the algae on

Looking really good. I think I have found another male and female in the remaining 5 I have.

Great pics and a lovely looking fish. I envy the way you keep the natives.

pm'd