Niko-You hit the nail on the head, this is an Ulvaceus and it does grow like mad. I regularly have to remove old leaves to make room for the new leaves and it sends out 2-3 runners that bloom at the surface at a time.
Speakerguy-Thanks for the kind words. While I do try to maintain a biotope type setup, my tank isn't a true biotope. Most of the plants in my tank are Asian or African in origin. I tried to do a planted tank many, many years ago that was strictly Amazonian and it was tough. I also have 3 siamese algae eaters in there, so that kinda throws off the biotope theme as well
As far as my tanks schedule is concerned, it is actually pretty easy. I change 20% water once a week. Yep, just once a week. Many people think discus tanks require lots of time to maintain (i.e. tons of water changes). The secret is to know your discus source and buy discus that have been tank bred for generations. My discus were bred and raised in good old fashioned dechlorinated city water. Give them a planted tank where nutrients are taken up by the plants along with a really good plant substrate that converts fish waste into plant food (I use eco-complete). Also, make sure to establish your plants before you add the discus and your gold.
I keep my temps at 83 degrees and I'm careful not to overfeed. I also clean my canister filter with every water change, which I feel if very important so that you don't have anything rotting in your filter which leaches nitrates. I dose flourish excel every day and regular flourish twice a week.
I hope you give discus a try. They are wonderful fish and the tank bred varieties are typically very hardy. Keep in mind most of what you read about how to maintain these fish are based on either keeping wild caught discus, breeding them, or growing them to show size which is larger than they are found in nature. Wild caught and breeding requires soft water, which has a greater chance of ph drops while grow outs require tons of feeding leading to tons of waste, which is why these methods require more attention to water quality and changes. To keep them as pets just requires understanding their basic needs for clean, warm water as well as making them feel secure as breeders still haven't found a way to breed the skiddish nature out of them.
Good luck.
