jsenske

This will be a new discus planted tank display here in our gallery. I just completed the installation and have a few minor tweaks to make, and I'll post a full frontal shot. Until then, I thought this set-up journal might be of interest to some, as I get a lot of questions about discus planted tank formulas.

substrate:
Penac P
Penac W
Tourmaline BC
1- 18 liters Power Sand "Special" L
5- 9 liter Aqua Soil "Amazonia" normal type
1- 15kg BRIGHT SAND
1- 8kg BRIGHT SAND

Filtration:
Eheim 2260
10 liters BIO RIO
5 liters NA CARBON (will be removed when discus are added)
ADA Lily Pipe outflow (P-6 17mm)

Lighting:
Coralife fixture
3- 150 HQI ADA NA lamps 8,000K regular (4 hours per day)
4- 96 watt Coralife 10,000K power compact fluorescent (10 hours per day)

CO2:
via reactor

Plants:
Various Echinodorus species

First I establish the rock layout which will also form the barrier between the substrate and decorative sand. I find that in a large tank with a really deep substrate such as that used for heavily rooted plants such as Echinodorus, a more effective barrier is formed when the rocks are placed on the bottom glass.

The completed rock barrier.

Penac P is added to just the 2 planted sections. Yes-- I use Penac, no- I don't wear crystals or believe in unicorns. Nor do I want to engage the same old argument about Penac. I will answer questions though.

Penac W is added throughout-- even under the decorative sand.

Tourmaline BC is added in the planted sections.

Power Sand "Special" L -- 18 liter bag was spread eevenly between the 2 planted sections.

Aqua Soil "Amazonia" normal type is added. I used only five bages for this 225gallon tank-- one advantage of the 2 section style where less expensive sand is used over so much of the bottom. Normally a tank this size would use 9-10 9 liter bags of Aqua Soil.

ADA BRIGHT SAND is added. A 15kg and 8kg bag were used here, though I fell I will need to add 1 more 8kg bag to get a bit more depth so avalanching on Aqua Soil is less of a problem. So I really should have just used 2- 15kg bags from the start.

Ready to add the driftwood.

I wanted to keep it kind of spare as far as wood. I did not want to use up a lot of space with wood, but rather leave more room for the many Echinodorus species to really grow lush.

Ready to add water very slowly and begin adding plants. To keep the swords somewhat upright and know how the composition was going, I kept the water running while I added plants. Normally I totally dry-scape, but that's tough with big swords.



Still a little cloudy, should be clear by morning. I'll post a frontal shot then for a little better perspective of the layout.