Hi from 9 miles south of Canada and not allowed to by plants up there.

Been into planted tanks a long while (7 or 8 years?).

Have a nice 80 gallon planted tank in my vet clinic lobby: http://glacierview.us/ (no pictures of it right now, sorry, maybe later). Right now there is 4 American Flag Fish, thriving plants, CO2, Tropica aquacare (regular not plus), crystal clear water, and very little algae (just a bit of hair for the fish to pick at growing in shady area, and the green spot stuff). Almost daily 10% water changes.

I've been fishless cycling a 29 gallon at home for 2 weeks now. (well, it wasn't fishless for two days, but the white clouds were stressed and dying, so I took them out to the kids sandbox that filled with rainwater this summer, and they ate all the mosquito larvae and are fat and happy, so I'm leaving them out there with a heater @ 64 degrees to see what happens this winter).

I would like to get into discus, but I want them to thrive, so I'm here to improve my understanding of planted tanks, and also discus. And maybe get some input from the boards about my tank at home and at work before I jump in. At the clinic, I have water that is about 1 dkH, and at home less than 1dkH. I do not believe that there is any chlorine, but I am going to look into this. Certainly other fish I have had have not been affected by it. I can keep discus without an RO unit or buying DI water, and add the needed hardness before adding to the tank.

Sometimes it just makes sense to keep fish that thrive in the water you already have. If I moved back to Eastern Washington, I would keep African Cichlids.

~Peter