Plants For 6Ft Discus Aquarium

[conca]

hi iv been doing this hobby for years now also have marine set ups .. only thing iv never gone into is the plants and different plants there are. apart from my other tanks iv just set up a 6ft tank for discus as im goin to breed them ... hopefully. what plants would go well and would the tank benifit from for this set up. thanks im also new to this forum

 

[Zante]

Amazon swords without a doubt. Heiko Bleher himself told me he was pleased to see two amazon swords in my discus tank. They are also a good spawning support.
 
Vallisneria will grow well and suck in loads of nutrients, but you have to be ready to keep containing it or it will spread in the whole of your tank.
 
I also have a tiger lily, and it's doing ok, apart from the surface leaves melting. Just prune the leaves before they reach the surface and you'll have a beautiful plant.
 
Eleocharis will grow well. Depending on the species it will grow to different lengths so you can have a lawn or you can have a patch of tall grass. It will spread, but not as fast as vallis
 
Sagittaria is also a good foreground plant, it might grow really tall though. Never seen it myself TBH, but Tropica do have this warning.
 
Hygrophila is also a good plant, and if you have an open aquarium it will grow out of the water. If you like that kind of thing it could be a good one for you.

 

[conca]

wow thanks mate any i like the sound of them all also looked them up on ebay etc. how many of each would u advuse me to buy for my 6ft ? 
 
thanks again

 

[DrRob]

Worth noting that people often keep discus at the higher end of the tropical temperature spectrum. If you do do this (as I suspect you will), then remember to check the plants temperature range. No point in keeping a sub tropical specimen and wondering why it doesn't do well.
 
You can get discus collection packs from various places that will leave out anything that likes it cooler.
 
One I like from the list is the aponogeton group, worth a look for a good sized tank.
 
As for how many, it depends a lot on how you intend to run the set up. Is this a higher light, higher tech end tank or is this a keep it simple low light tank? The amount of plant mass involved will vary according to what you're trying to do.

 

[Zante]

Worth noting that people often keep discus at the higher end of the tropical temperature spectrum. If you do do this (as I suspect you will), then remember to check the plants temperature range. No point in keeping a sub tropical specimen and wondering why it doesn't do well.

 
Indeed. As a matter of fact I have recently done some research on that because i want to re-plant my discus tank, and all the ones I suggested are temperature-approved

 
The only one, as I said, would be the tiger lily, but only for surface leaves. All underwater leaves are just fine.

wow thanks mate any i like the sound of them all also looked them up on ebay etc. how many of each would u advuse me to buy for my 6ft ? 
 
thanks again

 
As many as you need to make the tank look the way you want.
Keep in mind the "adult" size of the plants and draw them on a piece of paper trying to imagine how they will look in the tank.
 
I would say( for example) two echinodorus bleheri and one echinodorus ozelot, a tiger lily, a bush of Hygrophila, and a lawn of sagittaria and eleocharis with a few anubias on a large log, but that is just my taste.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

These links may help as well:
 
http/www.tropica.com/en/plants/use/heat-tolerant-plants.aspx
 
http/www.tropica.com/en/tropica-abc/the-right-fish/discus-aquaria.aspx