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inspired by keith to do a proper job on my tank i went out and sepnt little under $75AU on rock, plants, and pebbles for my new discus tank. some of you might of seen the blank canvas i had to work with in aquascaping. if not here it is..

http://www.stuartsmithmusic.com/fish/discus/blank1.jpg


and now for the big reveal......... *drum roll*
http://www.stuartsmithmusic.com/fish/discus/pan-tank.jpg

da dah! what do you think? heres more pics tp help you decide
http://www.stuartsmithmusic.com/fish/discus/discus-nt-1.jpg
http://www.stuartsmithmusic.com/fish/discus/dscus-new-tank2.jpg
http://www.stuartsmithmusic.com/fish/discus/top1.jpg
http://www.stuartsmithmusic.com/fish/discus/left1.jpg
http://www.stuartsmithmusic.com/fish/discus/discus-nt-rnose-1.jpg
http://www.stuartsmithmusic.com/fish/discus/discus-nt3.jpg
http://www.stuartsmithmusic.com/fish/discus/doscus1.jpg

http://www.stuartsmithmusic.com/fish/discus/discus2.jpg
http://www.stuartsmithmusic.com/fish/discus/bn1.jpg
http://www.stuartsmithmusic.com/fish/discus/bn2.jpg
http://www.stuartsmithmusic.com/fish/discus/rnose2.jpg

thats it guys! sprry about the quality of the pics, i still have to learn how to get the best out of my camera.


Last edited by Stuquarium at 22-Oct-2005 16:51

the first picture i saw, i thought that blue thing was a golfball

Nick
"Impossumable- unable to play dead"

lol!

after i took those pic's i removed the golfball

Stuart

You have srarted out with a good basic layout.

I would suggest lots of med sized plants (one variety)in front of those rocks to soften them up a lot.
The large open space use one easy to grow very low ground cover and pack it tightly.

Dont over do the too many varieties of plants as it becomes very distracting to the viewer.

That red/orange rock LH end(or what ever it is) is cetrainly out of place. I can also see a similar one behind as well.

Please paint the back black this will make the bright colours of the Discus stand out. The greeny of the plants also look a lot better as well.

I would also get one good piece of DW and place it where that large bare rock left of blue ball.

You can go two ways here either height a piece with the roots spread out for balance, or a long winding piece which leads you towards the RH side of the tank. This piece must have some height at the Lh end to give it a flow.

How is that for starters?

[link=Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tanks]http://photobucket.com/albums/b209/keithgh/Betta%20desktop%20tank/" style="COLOR: #00FF00[/link]

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

thanks for that keith. i will be changing the background, might even just pin a dark towel on the back wall to cover the white thats there.

your ideas are interesting, and i'll have a play around, do you think there's room for more diftwood? 2 pieces in there already

i was thinking of lining the spaces with small "potted" plants that you can get for like $2-50 each and placing them more up front. giving the tank more depth..

with 2 x 38W power-glo globes can my tank handle more plants?

i started looking and said ok where are the discus, but now i see tehm, good job with the tank and i wish u many years of fun.

Hmm not bad, I agree with keith you need some more depth. I see lots of stem plants, though not necesarily a bad thing, they can be quite a hassle when you have to trim them all. I would suggest some broader leaved plants like a sword or crypts. In fact crypts would make a wonderful midground plant. Cryptocoryne retrospiralis would also make a very nice background plant, it has a nice wavy texture and the leaves are quite long and the color varies from a bright green to a pinkish purplish central vein. As for your hardscape it is very much all clustered on the bottom-back of the tank, I can see more driftwood being added, but I'd definetly work on developing a more vertical appeal since right now the eyes are drawn not to the fish, but to the substrate. Rocks are very hard to work with IME, they can very easily stick out like sore thumbs, especially when they have ragged or defined edges. But don't be discouraged, try and soften them up by having plants around them, but do bring some of them closer to the foreground to balance it out.

HTH
Megil.

Last edited by Megil Tel'Zeke at 23-Oct-2005 12:58

The first image that came into my mind when I saw "Discus Tank" was amazon sword plants and drift wood.
Actually I was expecting lots of large sword plants and lots of drift wood.

Sorry to be negative, but I think your layout looks a bit disordered and does not suit discus.

Have a look at this tank (not mine), hopefully it gives you some ideas.
http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2004.cgi?&Scale=258&op=showcase&category=0&vol=3&id=141

Keep trying!

Cheers,
Jimmy

I don't think I've ever seen such a beautifully tightly-schooled group of discus before. Now I'm even more determined to convert my mbuna tank.

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

hey jimmy thanks for the input, like i said it was a 1st attempt, i'll add some swords, and jave fern too, i have 2 peices of driftwood in the tank, i might add another if i find one i like


just begining - thanks mate, they are all fantastic together, a joy to watch

Last edited by Stuquarium at 27-Oct-2005 04:02

i think she was talking about the ones in the link .

Also when i think of dicus tanks I think of Phil's tank, tough when i got to see it it was no longer aquascaped like below.

[link=also a ver nice design]http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2003.cgi?&op=showcase&category=0&vol=2&id=66" style="COLOR: #2080ff[/link]

yeah silly me.

sorry about that

Well i think it is a bit unusal for discus but i like it alot especially for a first try, it has a lot of cover for the discus which is good, the rock is def distracting but like mentioned above move to forground and add plants. I wouldnt get discouraged though the pics in the thread were 1st and 3rd place from a aquascapping contest cant really compare thats yrs upon yrs of esperience, keep it up though looks great