South American Root Biotape

[Mako Man111]

Well, after doing a bit of research, I think I have the making of a great South American Root Biotape!

My tank is a great size and shape for discus and angel fish, it is 48x18x28 (105 gallons). Its nice and tall, and is also plenty long and wide.

There would be no live plants in the tank, only rocks, gravel, and wood. These fish like the tank fairly dark, so my single 40 watt light would be perfect. I would filter the water with peat to lower the ph and soften the water. and keep the tank around 80 degrees F.

I would stock (hows this sound): 4 Discuss, 4 Angels, 10 hatchet fish.

I need a suggestion for a bottom dwelling fish/fishes that would match the biotape! How about a bristlenose plec, does that sound right?


Also, is there anything else I should know about keeping discus besides thier need for a rich diet?

 

[CFC]

No Amazonian biotope is complete without a catfish or two, for tanks with discus i would recomend Corydoras sterbai and banjo catfishes as they wont disturb the discus and stress them out but can handle the slightly higher temperatures needed for the discus to thrive.

 

[kev_kb]

I'm not saying it wouldn't work for you, but I wouldn't mix Angels and Discus and I wouldn't use peat to soften the water either.

There's plenty of posts on Angels & Discus and I just don't think they mix well, in my experience it was a nightmare!

As far as the peat goes I'd look at using RO water to soften your water, it would be a much more reliable and consistant way to do it.

 

[grayboy1]

The tank you are proposing I have running! Ill give you the full details below:

6'x2'x2'
Undergravel powered with 3 inches of pea gravel + 8 uplifts ran by air
The tank has about 3 huge pieces of bogwood I found on the beach. They have been treated and sterilised properly and are about a year old now. Completely water logged. On top of this ive got about another 5 pieces of the largest mopani bogwood I could buy. expensive stuff. They are all stacked in a pyramid shaped fashion all the way to the waters surface leaving lots of swimming space at the sides and front and a gap around the back too.

I use a 50 ish watt tube and thats enough lighting for the tank. Looks perfect. Ive got 2 plastics plants and a treasure chest type thing that ive had around the back of one of the plants because a) its ugly lol and B) my clown loach loves using it as his cave (its quite big)

stocklist:

9 Discus
5 Angels
20 serpae tetras
7 bronze/albino corys
1 large clown loach
2unkown plecs
2 golden loaches
2 pim pictus cats
1 synodontis eupterus

water: 6.2 ish gh + kh >3
nitrate under 10

the water has gone a natural tint of brown due to all the wood.
i dont filter with peat obviously, but i see no reason as why not to? if my tap water wasnt so soft and i used say an external filter then id definately use it. my water is pre filter through an HMA filter.


Now with regards to keeping angels + discus....this text is copied and pasted from another post i replied to cos i dont wanna write it out again

2006, 12:38 PM Post #10

i have 20 serpae tetras in along with 9 discus in my 6' x 2' x 2' tank. taking everything into account they are perfect. plenty movement. no hassle to the discus. and they are larger than neons

as with the angel parasite comment. this is totally incorrect. both angels and discus can carry internal parasites and other nasties that can lay dormant in the carrier fish then can affect other fish from the same or other species. angels do not carry any parasites that "dont harm them" that is nonsense. they are more hardy than discus due to how long they have been bred in captivity. for this reason they usually carry things that dont actually end up infecting them, but instead end up infecting more sensitive fish such as discus. it would be fair to say angels can carry parasites which can infect other tank mates such as discus. but it works the other way round. alot of people have made a mountain out of a molehill over this. partly because discus are far more expensive than angels, and rightly so people are protective over their discus.

incidently i have a tank with 10 real altum angels in it that took me ages to track down. ill be adding some discus soon. but ill be treating the discus with a wormer and quarantining them before i add them to my altum tank. curse those filthy discus



ps: angels are great companions for discus. i wont go into it much more than that. i already keep koi angels with discus. they are the best tankmates a discus could have as long as they are quarantined first


PPS forgot to add. if your raw tap water is too hard for these fish then id recommend an ro unit but you could still filter some water through peat in a canister filter or little air driven box filter regardless of if u use RO water or not. it will do more good than harm

 

[Mako Man111]

The tank you are proposing I have running! Ill give you the full details below:

6'x2'x2'
Undergravel powered with 3 inches of pea gravel + 8 uplifts ran by air
The tank has about 3 huge pieces of bogwood I found on the beach. They have been treated and sterilised properly and are about a year old now. Completely water logged. On top of this ive got about another 5 pieces of the largest mopani bogwood I could buy. expensive stuff. They are all stacked in a pyramid shaped fashion all the way to the waters surface leaving lots of swimming space at the sides and front and a gap around the back too.

I use a 50 ish watt tube and thats enough lighting for the tank. Looks perfect. Ive got 2 plastics plants and a treasure chest type thing that ive had around the back of one of the plants because a) its ugly lol and B) my clown loach loves using it as his cave (its quite big)

stocklist:

9 Discus
5 Angels
20 serpae tetras
7 bronze/albino corys
1 large clown loach
2unkown plecs
2 golden loaches
2 pim pictus cats
1 synodontis eupterus

water: 6.2 ish gh + kh >3
nitrate under 10

the water has gone a natural tint of brown due to all the wood.
i dont filter with peat obviously, but i see no reason as why not to? if my tap water wasnt so soft and i used say an external filter then id definately use it. my water is pre filter through an HMA filter.


Now with regards to keeping angels + discus....this text is copied and pasted from another post i replied to cos i dont wanna write it out again

2006, 12:38 PM Post #10

i have 20 serpae tetras in along with 9 discus in my 6' x 2' x 2' tank. taking everything into account they are perfect. plenty movement. no hassle to the discus. and they are larger than neons

as with the angel parasite comment. this is totally incorrect. both angels and discus can carry internal parasites and other nasties that can lay dormant in the carrier fish then can affect other fish from the same or other species. angels do not carry any parasites that "dont harm them" that is nonsense. they are more hardy than discus due to how long they have been bred in captivity. for this reason they usually carry things that dont actually end up infecting them, but instead end up infecting more sensitive fish such as discus. it would be fair to say angels can carry parasites which can infect other tank mates such as discus. but it works the other way round. alot of people have made a mountain out of a molehill over this. partly because discus are far more expensive than angels, and rightly so people are protective over their discus.

incidently i have a tank with 10 real altum angels in it that took me ages to track down. ill be adding some discus soon. but ill be treating the discus with a wormer and quarantining them before i add them to my altum tank. curse those filthy discus



ps: angels are great companions for discus. i wont go into it much more than that. i already keep koi angels with discus. they are the best tankmates a discus could have as long as they are quarantined first


PPS forgot to add. if your raw tap water is too hard for these fish then id recommend an ro unit but you could still filter some water through peat in a canister filter or little air driven box filter regardless of if u use RO water or not. it will do more good than harm

Thanks a lot! My only problem is finding a place that sells a lot of bogwood, I can find driftwood, but no bogwood.

Also, why do you guys recommend an RO Unit over peat?

 

[kev_kb]

Cos you know exactly what your getting with an RO unit and you can keep it consistant.