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New 700LT tank for Discus


Dave+Amy

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Well..finally upgraded and new tank's dimensions are 160 x 70 x 70.

Currently housing my 12 Discus (the loaches and catfishes are in a smaller 250LT holding tank) - I need a few suggestions in creating habitat:

1) I thought I'd use the silica sand Dave bought me - but is sand heavy enough to hold the plants down?

2) I'm going to source some massive (but skinny) driftwood from Makara hopefully tomorrow - if it's sunbleached do I still need to boil it?

3)I'm assuming silica sand is pH neutral - but when I did separate pH tests between a bucket with the sand and my tank the pH is off by like 0.2pH ? (or is my test kit reading a bit off?)

4) Any driftwood will lower pH? Or just specific driftwood types?

Empty tank except for Discus:

395367433.jpg

Discus shots:

395367566.jpg

395367460.jpg

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if they are digging around the stones yes I think they will move. If they are big enough to touch the bottom and stick out of the top layer of sand then they will be a lot more steady. You could then put more stones on top like a rock garden and they wouldn't have anywhere to fall.

I think there is a thread on here from the obstacle and he's used dividers so there are built up areas for plants and sandy bits too.

I'm sure the others will have some better ideas if you are going to have digging fish.

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Nice looking discus! I hope you can keep the silica sand white, it went a horrible brown colour for me and looked terrible..

bummer! what am I going to do with 60kgs of white sand :-?

Where is the cheapest place to find fine pebbles? I contemplated Daltons but then remember a thread about how stuff builds up bad in Dalton substrate

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Discus are wonderful as always Amy!

Why not use the gravel / stones / sand from a local creek or river?

I'm a bit sketchy to take gravel from our local huge river as they've been having algae problems which killed dogs recently (Do i just boil and it should be fine to use??) - I could drive 30mins further up river which may be in better condition

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I have propagating sand in my planted tank and I think it looks nice. If you have enough plants you won't even be able to see it eventually :wink: . But I still think it's a nice natural colour. Those discus of yours are really nice.

by propagating sand - you mean Daltons? Can you gravel vac or have you got it fully covered by plant growth? The grain size is perfect but it will get expensive to cover my tank bottom (thinking 1.5inches depth for substrate)

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Yea it's Dalton's, and it's $5 for 20L down here, but that's from the place that supplies Bunnings. I have a 6x2x2 and I have 30L of aquatic mix (not enough) and I think 100L of prop sand (maybe more). If I gravel vac and have the tube on a lean the sand kinda sits in the tube and not much ends up sucked up. For the bigger pieces of crap on the bottom I just siphon with a piece of hose (gravel vac isn't strong enough to lift it).

1.5" isn't really all that deep for plants, mine would be around 4" which is quite deep, but with the height of the tank it doesn't take anything away from the overall view (especially with yours since it's 70cm high).

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Yea it's Dalton's, and it's $5 for 20L down here, but that's from the place that supplies Bunnings. I have a 6x2x2 and I have 30L of aquatic mix (not enough) and I think 100L of prop sand (maybe more). If I gravel vac and have the tube on a lean the sand kinda sits in the tube and not much ends up sucked up. For the bigger pieces of crap on the bottom I just siphon with a piece of hose (gravel vac isn't strong enough to lift it).

1.5" isn't really all that deep for plants, mine would be around 4" which is quite deep, but with the height of the tank it doesn't take anything away from the overall view (especially with yours since it's 70cm high).

Thanks - I just had a look at your tank on your link and that is impressive! Do you use CO2 at all? Or just fert balls and liquid fert?

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Thanks. Yea I have a pressurised unit. Would have cost around $350 max to set up and it's so easy. Makes a huge difference too. Jennifer hooked me up with the NPK ferts and I dose using Tom Barr's EI method (sticky in the aquatic plants section). I dose with the NPK solution, an Iron solution, and Flourish Comprehensive for trace elements. The growth on the tank is amazing, and I'm very happy with it. :D

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