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With such a natural looking tank I would personally want to keep the wild discus in there. That is just me though...

The tank sure looks nice. I bet it would look even better if the red on my screen would come back on.... I think my monitor is on its last days...

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

Your stream and beach seem to be really white and clean. For those who are considering that type of aquas-caping,how are you keeping it that way, what do you do?

Hi Frank, thanks for nice comments. Firstly, because this is ultimately a discus tank, things are kept simple. There are no stem plants that have to be regularly pulled out, bottom trimmed & replanted. I think this helps not disturb the planted areas too much. Also to keep things simple, the ricca rocks are gone. Too much work giving all those rocks hair cuts for a tank this size.

IMO the most important part of keeping the area separate is having a good solid retaining wall. I know that's not the amano way, but I can't see his way being practical for a long term tank. He would have you put in temporary dividing cardboard sheets. Pour the 2 diff substrates in & then cover the join with riccia rocks. Never tried it, but I just can't see how any tank with cories & other fish in there will ever keep the substrate division neat.

My retaining wall isn't as good I wanted it. If you scroll back to earlier pages, you see my concept was to silicone the main border rocks in place & then fill in the gaps with small gravel (also siliconed in place). I still think the concept was sound, but I should have done more test runs with substrate & water in (but no livestock). I still have gaps & if there were no fish in there, I could silicone more rocks in those gaps. As it is, I can only jamb in extra rocks & hold them in place with the weight of the sand. When I gravel vac, I tend to mess up the balance, the jambed rock moves & I get a few little spills. I just get my plant tongs & toss the ADA grains back where they belong, but if I could silicone the new rocks in place, problem would eventually be solved. If you look at my latest pics & you will see some border rocks that are lighter in colour. They are new jambing rocks (but the same type rocks). They will eventually get a light algae cover over them & they will blend in.

If you compare my latest shots with earlier shots, you'll also see I've lowered the both substrates a little, on either side of the border (but more so on the sand side). This also helps keep the substrates separated. My first effort was attempting to have the substrates meet the rocks on a level basos. It was too hard to stop the ADA spilling over that way. I had to accept the compromise of having the border sitting above the sand level.

My best advice is to build a good retaining wall & then give in adequest testing time without fish, so you can fix it where needed.

Water went in this tank July 07. Twice since then (one being a few weeks back) I've used a wide hose (like for washing machine waste water) & sucked all the sand out & given it a quick rinse. It really doesn't take long to do that at all. I don't wash it as thoroughly as I would if it were fresh gravel from LFS. Just a few changes of water in a bucket, then back in it went. Trying to shovel the sand out is the pits. Best way is suctioning it out.

With such a natural looking tank I would personally want to keep the wild discus in there. That is just me though...

Was torn at first, as I wanted my wild discus to have the biggest tank. But now I have enough wild browns & blues to fully stock my 4ft as well as enough wild green discus to fully stock my 3ft. According to Heiko (wild discus expert) greens & blues should be kept separate. So that was one factor. The other is that even if the7ft is natural, it's not really mimicking the wilds natural environment. I don't plan on being super strict with the bio type, but I do plan on making it at least semi bio type. This means a light sandy bottom, branchy driftwood that reaches down from the water surface and floating plants. There shouldn't really be plants in the tank, but I have cheated a little & have some n.leaf java fern & moss here and there. I'm still searching for the right floating plants. I've made a start on the brown/blue's tank. The green's are still in BB QT, so their setup will start later down the track, but similar scheme. I don't have a pic of the biotype with fish, sand & plants, but here's a sneaky peak of the day I was playing around with driftwood layout. This is more or less how my driftwood is placed, though I did flip the right side piece so the low long horizontal piece sits more at the rear.

bet it would look even better if the red on my screen would come back on....

Probably not Wings. I don't have any red plants in there, other than crypt tropica. The phantom tall crypt on the right half of the tank, it has pink backed leaves, but it didn't show up in the pics.


Cheers
TW

Hi Robyn,
I have flipped back and forth and had, indeed, forgotten
that you'd created a wall between the two. Yes, that does
make a world of difference during cleaning. Simply siphon
out the sand, wash it, and replace it. Good thinking!

I think Wings was talking about the "red" being missing
from his monitor because of what it did to the Red Discus
fish that are in the pictures.

Yes, Wings, I'd definitely replace the monitor!

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Fish and plants look way better when the red comes back on my monitor!!

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric