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I wanna get more serious about fish keeping im getting a 44 gallon pentagon tank and putting angels banjo catfish pleco and guoramis and possibly a discus what type of plants and light should i use

Plants are dependent on light so pick on or the other... Also those listed fish are not all compatible together. If you really want discus you should keep it species only until they are old and strong enough. Plants that are good should have long leaves such as vals or be large plants in general such as large swords. Depending on what plants are available to you i suggest you do a little research for this... see what you like and see what your stores have then get back to us and we can help you get the equipment you need.

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If it is still the baby discus you refer to, then their tank should really be bare bottom. You can have plants - but choose those that can be tied on a piece of driftwood (java fern, annubia, moss) or plant them in terracotta pots (eg swords). Not all plants will be comfortable in the higher temperature that a discus tank requires. A site like www.tropica.com lists lots of aquatic plants and their preferred temperature. Refer to that & it should help you with your choices.

I'd stick to low light plants, if this is to be a baby discus tank. Again, the tropica site will help you with that too.

Cheers
TW

Plants in gerneral need nitrAtes to feed on if you dont have a lot of those then you may want to add fish periodicly from another tank to increase the nitrAtes because with out them plants grow.

adil

Hi,
An interesting variety of fish. First, I would strike the Discus, its temperature requirements are much higher than the other fish mentioned. Additionaly, as was mentioned, many plants will not thrive, and some not survive, at the temperatures required for Discus.

It sounds like you are stocking this tank as if it were a "regular" rectangular tank. A pentagon tank does not have the surface area that a rectangular tank has. It is much smaller.
We used to use the "one inch of fish/gallon" Rule of Thumb.
Now, we use the Surface Area of the tank to determine how
many fish we should house in a given tank.
You can use this site to determine the area of your tank: http://www.math-prof.com/AreaVolume/Pentagon.aspx
Once you have determined the surface area, you can use this site http://www.firsttankguide.net/capacity.php to help you determine how many of what kind of fish to stock it with.

It also does not have the "swimming room" that a rectangular tank has. Fish have to swim "up and down" in the pentagon, much like a "show" tank - they cannot swim back and forth as much. In a sense, you are "crowding" them into a smaller tank.

Lastly, I believe with discus fish, the desire is to have the nitrate levels at 0 or as close as possible. This is accomplished by frequent (daily) large water changes.

BTW, it is never a good idea to add extra fish from time to time just to have them add some "extra" waste products to the tank. Nitrate levels can adjusted chemically with no risk of injury to the swapped fish or increased risk of an outbreak of Ich. One such product is "Grant's Stump Remover." Use the "plain" product that has no additives.

Just some thoughts...
Frank

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