72 Dirted Planted Project

[ccbeauch]

October just flew by. I’ve been really busy so I decided let the plants just "grow out." Last week I cut 24 large Foxtail stems and traded them in to a local fish store (LFS). Each was in the 10-16 inch range. Yesterday I cut the Rotala rotundifolia down and replanted 115 stems in the middle back of the aquarium. I have been doing twice weekly water changes and feeding them when they look hungry (about 5 cubes per day). Both Cardinals and Discus have become comfortable with each other. The Cardinals are similar to vultures when I drop a blood worm cube. They swoop in quickly, gobbling up stray floating blood worms.

The Pigeon Blood Red discus are starting to get more white patches and are quickly becoming my favorite fish in the tank.

I have been on a de-snailling vendetta. It seems like they were eating my sword plants and turning them yellow and sick looking. Since they have almost all been gone, I have gotten new leaves that are vibrantly green just like they used to look. That made me happy because I thought maybe my plants were old and dying and I was going to have to get rid of them. Turns out they are doing okay J

The dwarf hair grass (DHG) is thriving at the bottom and is green and longer than ever. The DHG has many off shoots that the discus sometimes rip up while they scavenge for lone blood worms.

Recently also acquired a new pet! He is friendly, quite, and loves to explore/run. Very pokey but also gentle. He eats a special kind of cat food and the cats both like his food better than what they get.

The first fish tank shot (FTS) is after I cut the foxtail but prior to cutting the Rotala. The next shot is after I cleaned up the foxtail and Rotala and replanted them both.

That’s all that has happened for the month of October. Enjoy!

[bbrackeen]

Hah!! Is that a hedgehog!?

Awesome tank! I keep waffling over discus or not until I see them again! That turquoise is just beautiful!

[ccbeauch]

Originally Posted by bbrackeen

Hah!! Is that a hedgehog!?

Awesome tank! I keep waffling over discus or not until I see them again! That turquoise is just beautiful!

Why yes it is He's a pretty cool pet too. Isn't afraid of the cats one bit and also came as a natural litter box trained animal which was lucky for us.


Discus are awesome fish to keep once you learn what they like and need to thrive. I like him a lot too. He was my favorite but these two new Pigeon bloods are slowly changing my mind.

[Evilgrin]

I like your tank so far looking good. I know how you feel about the lack of replies I started a thread about my 55g about 3-4 weeks ago only 2 replies so far.
Going to subscribe as I'm interested in how your tank works out, I'm doing a dirted tank as well all the plants are in still stocking the tank at this point.

[Sethjohnson30]

Your tank looks awesome! Where did you get that canopy? I have twin 72g's and I hate the blinding amount of light that comes out of my raised fixtures.
I can't find a premise canopy for less than 400$, and I live in an apartment so I can't build one.

[StraightAddicted]

Wow beautiful setup and love the journey pics to see where you came from to where it has emerged to. The cats and hedgehog were good mix to throw in
Stinks to lose a fish or several, especially when you have them as little ones. But I'm sure your new colony will last for years to come. Once again, great job! and keep up the hard work

[MikeS]

Beautiful tank!

[simplicitysarah]

Great tank! What beautiful fish!

[Mahlady]

Beautiful

[Saxtonhill]

Beautiful tank and discus! Love the way the cats appear in the photo narrative (and what an interesting hedge hog)

Very interested in the dirt-layer in the substrate...I'm going to subscribe

[whiptail]

Nice tank. The LFS has been pushing discus. Are they as difficult to reaise as I keep hearing? The feeding is what worries me, because I'm gone a lot of weekends.
Love the pics of your cat. We have a miniture Schnouser and she will sit and watch the bristlenose too. What's funny is when she tries to bite it. The bristlenose will stay on the front of the glass and just wiggle a little bit. It's like it's teasing her.

[ccbeauch]

Originally Posted by Sethjohnson30

Your tank looks awesome! Where did you get that canopy? I have twin 72g's and I hate the blinding amount of light that comes out of my raised fixtures.
I can't find a premise canopy for less than 400$, and I live in an apartment so I can't build one.

My canopy came with the tank when I got it from a guy off of craigslist. It is actually plastic and super light. He said he paid 150$ from some online store but had to build it himself, which consisted of glueing 5 supports on the inside together to hold it up... good luck!

even though it is palstic, it looks perfect up there and doesn't look cheap in person or in the pictures at all.

[ccbeauch]

Originally Posted by Evilgrin

I like your tank so far looking good. I know how you feel about the lack of replies I started a thread about my 55g about 3-4 weeks ago only 2 replies so far.
Going to subscribe as I'm interested in how your tank works out, I'm doing a dirted tank as well all the plants are in still stocking the tank at this point.

Thanks! It has been a while since I looked at this but I have been keeping up on my water changes. Problems arose with algea but I'm seeking help on fixing that now. The good thing is that no fish have died, just a lot of plant...

[ccbeauch]

Originally Posted by whiptail

Nice tank. The LFS has been pushing discus. Are they as difficult to reaise as I keep hearing? The feeding is what worries me, because I'm gone a lot of weekends.
Love the pics of your cat. We have a miniture Schnouser and she will sit and watch the bristlenose too. What's funny is when she tries to bite it. The bristlenose will stay on the front of the glass and just wiggle a little bit. It's like it's teasing her.

The feeding isn't a problem at all. When they are young they can go for about 2 weeks without food and at the adult age they can go for 2 to 4 months with out a meal, though I don't recomend it. I am gone most weekends too in the spring and summer and they are completely fine when I return. The biggest part is making sure you are up on your water changes if you are going to leave for a week or something like that. I usually do one right before I go just to be on the safe side. The more plants in the tank, the more problems can arise if you dose things, but also the longer the tank can go without a water change if need be. Right now I'm battling algea but the fish don't seem to mind one bit.

my tank still turns a tea color 8 months later and I'm not sure if that is because of the wood or dirt in the bottom of the tank, maybe both. good luck if you decide to jump in. There is a guy named Paul or discus Paul who gives good advice on discus and such. Learned some key things from him.

[ccbeauch]

So it has been a really long time since an update. I'm kinda embarrassed of how the tank has been looking the last 10 weeks or longer and that's why I haven't done an update. Some algae started to grow (should have crossed my fingers sooner) and since then things in the tank have been on the decline. I'm not sure what type of algae it is or how to get rid of it and was kinda just hoping it would go away on its own... dumb. So now I'm asking for help and looking around to what it may be. I didn't start dosing ever and I have no clue what caused it because I’m pretty sure nothing changed when it first arose. No fish have died (thank God) so I wasn't too worried for a while, but now my plants are starting to be killed off as you can see from the pictures. (Green foxtail is all gone, along with most of the hair grass and all of the red plant-can't remember its name right now) My swords just recently (2 weeks ago) sprouted offspring and now I'm trying to figure out what to do with them. I've ripped some off and replanted and still have a bunch (20+) just floating around on the stem.

I also think my bristle nose plecos have been eating my sword plants and that is why they seem so small. It also could be the small snails, but I pretty much wiped out there whole colony and the plants haven't changed with holes and such.

My fish on the bright side are doing great! The one pigeon blood has grown to about the size of the other 4 (which isn't saying much since I stunted all of their growth due to prolonged captivity in a 29 gallon tank). The other pigeon blood was a runt of the group and I knew he would fit in with my other discus and couldn't pass him up to be left for dead. He has grown a little but is still small compared to the others although they have accepted him into their pack.

I was saddened to find out that my LFS (local fish store) went out of business in the area 3 months ago (had been buying my blood worms and beef heart from petsmart...) and just found out this week. Now I’m left with just petsmart or a terrible local pet store that has half-filled infected fish tanks rampant and the overwhelming smell of ammonia that punches you in the face when you walk in the door, making it difficult to breath. Being a college athlete, I think that is kind of a big deal. Anyway, onto the pictures!

Please be nice about the comments, I know how bad it looks and am trying to figure out what to do to get rid of the algae and get my plants on the upside of growing again. I have been doing my weekly water changes for the past 3 months so it isn't as bad as it really looks, I hope.....