April 2007 Tank Of The Month: Filipe Oliveira - Library

April 2007 Tank Of The Month
"Plantado vs Discus”
by Filipe Oliveira

Introduction:
Hello, my name is Filipe Oliveira (FAAO), from Porto-Portugal, I'm 31 years old and I work for a civil engineering company as IT Manager.

I started this hobby in 2001 like everyone else. My interest in Aquascaping started in 2005 when I created the “Across the River” and “Rise beyond the limits”, my first aquascapes. Before creating these aquascapes, I made some exercises about growing and fertilizing plants, forming a texture, colouring the aquascapes, trimming the plants, etc.

The last year was great for me as an aquascaper; in my first year of experience I got three prizes at AGA with two aquariums made in the same year.

Aquascaping for me is a way of relaxation and recreating a small part of nature in the middle of five glass walls. There are only two kinds of scapes for me: “Nature” and “Landscape”. I love the landscapes. I love recreating some part of the nature like a river, mountain, a field and why not a tree near the river?!…

This is what I love to do…

In bigger aquariums, I prefer something more natural and a good scape where the fishes can swim and feel well day after day.

I usually spend one to two months to prepare and organize all the stuff before starting a new setup. I spend few hours to finish it (hardscape and planting). It doesn't take so much time to do the setup, since it’s all in my head. I only need to put the pieces on the right position and plant. Sometimes I need some improvisation and imagination to go through, but I always find a way to finish it quickly.

“Plantado vs Discus” is my first layout with discus and it has been a great experience for me with all the problems that I’ve passed through. For this scape, I tried to make a “U” layout. I always keep a nice volume of plants on the corners and a free space in the middle.

I never give up of a fight after I start a setup. I always improve it with a patience and then I overcome the problems.

At beginning it was quite difficult for me to know the appropriate amount of food to feed the discus and I never thought that I would need a cleaning team to remove that mess. So the algae strongly attacked the plants and the gravel. I lost the control. While I was feeding the discus at one side, I was cleaning and establishing the aquarium at the other side. It was a real nightmare during the first two months… I lost three discus; they refused to eat even after treatment. After I lost three of them, I gave two of the smallest discus to a friend with the hope that he could save them. Unfortunately they also died… So, at the moment I keep 3 of 8 discus in this aquarium and there are living and eating without any problem. Since they started to eat very well, I changed the priority and started the algae cleaning. It was a real mess, algae and more algae! Sometimes I thought “what have I done…” I didn’t believe what my eyes were seeing!

With patience I started to clean it with my hands and added some Ameca splendens into this aquarium. Amecas are the fastest algae eaters that I’ve seen in my entire life. It was amazing to see how fast they can eat algae and at same time eat the discus’ food. It was a total cleanup. In two weeks they cleaned all the algae and I started to smile again…

When I thought that I could finally sit down and relax, I saw that Amecas were damaging the plants, “ohhh no, not again…” It took me three long weeks to catch them!

Now the aquarium is stable and finally I can sit down and relax, but I am compulsively checking if something is going wrong again…

Never give up; you only need to have a patience. All the problems have their solutions… The only thing that has no solution is the death!!

The Evolution of “Plantado vs Discus”

First Week of the layout

The tank's aquascape is further defined as the plants slowly fill in

Eleocharis aciculares fills in the foreground and while the stem plants are neatly maintained

The Completed Aquascape: APRIL 2007 TOTM

“Plantado vs Discus”

Aquarium size:121 x 41 x 55 (cm)

Substrate System:ELOS Terra medium and small (30L) + Terra Zero bottom fertilizer

Lighting: ELOS Aquaplanet II 2x70watts HQI 10.000k + 4x39w T5 (3x10.000k + Flora)
14h-23h 4x39w T5 and 16h-20.30h HQI

Filtration:Rena XP2 1000L/h (regulated flow) Mechanical

CO2 System: ELOS Complete Co2 system SET A with REA 30 Reactor, Pressurized system 2b/s

Decoration:Xisto's Rocks, Redmoor Wood

Temperature: 28º

Water parameters: pH 6.5 / gH 6/ kH 7 / No3: 10ppm / Po4 1.5ppm

Fertilization: K40, Fase1 and Fase2
Schedule fertilization: *Sun, Mon, wed and Fri - FASE2 (Micro and macro)
Tue, Thu and Sat – K40 and Fase1 (Potassium and Iron)
*Sun – After TPA of 25%

TPA: once a week 25%

Plants: Eleocharis aciculares, Juncus repens, Blyxa japónica, Ludwigia arcuata, Rotala green, Rotala rotundifolia, Vesicularia dubyana and Cryptocoryne brown.

Food: Tetra PRO Discus flakes and Sera granulate (only 1x a week)

Fish: Symphysodon aequifasciata axelrodi, Mikrogeophagus ramirezi, Paracheirodon axelrodi, Otocinclus affinis, Lda25, Aspidoras pauciradiatus, Crossocheilus siamensis and Hemigrammus rhodostomus