bli Posted December 4, 2006 Report Share Posted December 4, 2006 Hi Guru's, fish lovers and everyone else! I am about to set up a planted discus aquarium and wanted some advice regarding lighting. I am growing out my fish and have decided its time to upgrade. I have the following two options 1) 1200 x 450 x 600 with 2 x 38w (Original Tropical and White Tubes) 2) 1500 x 600 x 600 with 4 x 54w (Original Tropical and White Tubes) Obviously the larger would be the best for achieving maximum plant growth but also the most expensive. Could i get away with the smaller tank with less lighting? Can anyone provide me with advice of setting up a wicked looking discus planted aquarium and also how many fish each of my options would hold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quack Posted December 5, 2006 Report Share Posted December 5, 2006 you will need alot more light than that i would think. somewere between 0.5-1 watt per leter is the place to aim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bli Posted December 5, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2006 Yeah I have read even as much as 2-3 watts per gallon. Thanks for your help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted December 5, 2006 Report Share Posted December 5, 2006 Either lighting setup would be OK for Echinodorus sp. I have a 1200 x 500 tank with 2 3ft flouros going 16 hours a day and it contains amongst others martii. red special, tenellus and ozelot all with runners. There are other important factors such as water clarity, depth, time on and type of tubes as well as the nutrient leval and media which determine how they grow. I am using a daylight and a growlux along with 30 watts of incandescent but two daylight would be OK. If you need you can leave the lights on longer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bli Posted December 5, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2006 Thanks, aesthetically the 1200 would probably be the best and much cheaper (if i went with the 1500 i would have to upgrade my fluval 405 to an FX5). Is there anyway of adding an extra light fitting to an already exisitng aquarium hood. I am contemplating purchasing one of the OCEAN FREE EUROPEAN STYLED aquariums if anybody knows what they are like. I guess for extra light I could always lift up the rear lid and put a double lighthood???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted December 5, 2006 Report Share Posted December 5, 2006 I have two 3 ft flouros with the tubes only in the hood on a timer and two 15 watt incandescents on dimmers that are on permanently. I think this is on the minimum for light but the more light you have the more careful you have to be to avoid algae problems. The large echinodorus sp. need heavy root feeding so require a good depth of media which reduces the depth the light needs to penetrate. The water depth is more critical than the number of litres as the amount of light required is logarithmic as the depth increases. In my opinion a water depth over 450 --500mm is getting into potential problems as the light required to get to the bottom gives too much light to the top. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bli Posted December 6, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 6, 2006 How many full grown discus would fit in a 70 Gallon Planted Tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evilknieval69 Posted December 6, 2006 Report Share Posted December 6, 2006 Discus as a rule of thumb need 40L's or 10 gallons each, so in a 70 gallon you could fit 7 or so.... HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharn Posted December 8, 2006 Report Share Posted December 8, 2006 keep in mind you need to account for air space at the top, gravel, decor etc. if the tank isnt in balance (plants using up nutrients properly) then you may find that you still need to do w/c's very often (2-3+ a week), planted tanks are harder to keep clean and if somethings out of balance water changes will be needed to remove the stuff that would normally be used up by plants Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bli Posted December 8, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2006 I have been growing out 5 small discus in a 70lt tank for the past few months each have grown around 20-30mm and that is the reason for the upgrade. This tank is somewhat planted and all plants are growing well with a Nutrafin CO2 injector. I dont know too much about plants and their names but my fern looking one has really taken off as well as my small grasses that almost died in my 160ltr which had the C02 injector as well as 2 x 30w Arcadia tubes. I have been checking out a few of the members tanks and really like the look of a green carpet/moss covering the front of the tank. Is this hard to achieve (lighting requirements) and can anyone help as to how to get hold of this (anywhere in the Auckland area) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted December 8, 2006 Report Share Posted December 8, 2006 Have a look at the plantgeek site. If the plant you want is Glossostigma elatinoids I can send you enough to get srarted for the cost of fastpost ($4.30). If it does not have enough light it will grow upwards (as seen on plantgeek) Mine is grown emersed in natural light so someone else will have to advise if your lighting is good enough. PM me with your address if you want a bit to try or Waterplantz sells larger quantities on trademe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bli Posted December 11, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 11, 2006 Thanks for all your help guys. The tank that I have decided to get is an Ocean Free ST120 (120x55x60) It comes with 2 x 30W tubes under the hood. I will be able to sit another lighthood with 2 x 30watt tubes on the back section of the aquarium hood (it has lift up plates) however this would mean that the added tubes would be directly above the standard light tube in the aquarium... will this be ok? Or would it be better to remove the back tube and just have the 1 standard (at the front) and then the added 2 x 30w on the removable lighthood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robert Posted December 11, 2006 Report Share Posted December 11, 2006 Go to dhp/nl this site has heaps of info on planted discus tanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bli Posted December 13, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2006 Dont quite understand the site address??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bli Posted January 10, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2007 Been browsing through the forum reading up about aquarium substrate and am gettin awfully confused as everyone is recommending different things. Basically I want to keep around 7 discus in my new tank. 1200x450x600 (70 Gal) I am not trying to breed or grow outstanding large Discus as long as they are happy and show off their wicked colours! And I can get growth from a range of plants e.g. Grasses, some red plants and that awesome looking glosso carpet stuff (thanks Alanmin, p.s I might have to get some more) I will be using a Nutrafin C02 yeast kit and at the moment I have got 4 x 30w Arcadia white and pink tropical tubes (which gives me only 1.7W p/g) but will be upgrading to t5 lighting in a couple of months. From what I can gather off the forum I will lay around 1cm of sand, then 2-3cm of aquatic plant mix (with a bit of peat), and then finish off with 2-3cm of sand. I want to go for the creamy-white sand look and was thinking about either getting some from Palmers. Does this sound right? Any suggestions, Size or sand? I have been contemplating using substrate heating as I have read that sand restricts the Water Circulation in the tank but if this is unneccessary me and my wallet would glady go without. Thanks to everyones help, as a novice it is great to read up and get help from everyone on the forum. I will post some pictures once set up gets started this weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef Posted January 10, 2007 Report Share Posted January 10, 2007 I don’t think the lighting ill be enough. Might be ok to keep the plants alive, but not flourish and reach their potential. If you go with the 1200 size tank why cant you add 4 x 54w t5s? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bli Posted January 10, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2007 Will definately be something I look into a couple of months down the track but at the moment the 30w are all I have access to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bli Posted January 31, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2007 Heres a look at how the tank is coming along. New t5 lighting coming next week! http://s139.photobucket.com/albums/q304 ... iscus8.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afrikan Posted January 31, 2007 Report Share Posted January 31, 2007 Beautiful!!!!!!!! I can't say much more than that, please keep us updated with pics! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bli Posted February 1, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2007 Thanks AFRICAN! Yeah really like how its all turned out so far. Plants have been really getting established, especially the small grasses along the front. Hopefully the Glosso takes off a bit once I get the t5 lights onto them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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