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37g Discus, planted, harscaped "Appalachian Allure"

15K views 87 replies 26 participants last post by  bsmith 
#1 ·
I am very excited about this layout. This tank has gone through a few different iterations but I believe this will be the final, most natural and ultimately the scape that I transfer to the large rimless aquarim that will centerpiece my collection when I am able do it.

As I type I am in the midst of speaking with Rod Salyers who is the owner/operator/harbinger of hardscape for thedriftwoodstore.com. We have spoken about this scape on a few different occasions because both he and I are very particular about setting things up correctly from the start with the design goal, rock shape/size/texture/feel and ensuring that I (the customer) am going to get exactly the right rock/wood for the job. This includes verbal and photo sharing through our phones. I will post up some pics of this efforts below. Its quite refreshing in this day and age of "pay me then we can talk mentality"! Wonderful service and I suggest ANYONE who is thinking about hardscaping their tank give them a shot.

The landscape from which the hardscape was born.


Currently the tank has 3 discus and 4 or so Ottocinclus. The plants are Syngonanthus madiera, Ludwigia Pantanal, Echinodorus Aflame, Eriocaulon Austraila II and Polygonum Sao Paulo.

The hardscape will entail North Fork Stones and Appalachian Root Wood which has a contorted shape due to the rocky terrain and a dark reddish brown color given from the high Iron content of the soils, neither of which I have ever seen implemented in a tank before. They were harvested in their entirety, legally and with all proper permits from the watersheds in the higher elevations of the Southern Appalachian mountains and from the streams/rivers of Eastern Tennessee with Rod's own hands. I wish I could have been there!

Everything should be arriving mid week but here are some shots he sent of a very nice mock up of the tank that were done with the dimensions I sent him.


A few sample pics of the materials/


 
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#4 · (Edited)
Why wouldnt I keep them in a 37g tank? I have kept them in here for years with multiple breeding pairs. If you keep the water filtered and provide quality parameters there is no problem. I'm also the guy keeping a large community of high grade CRS in a 5.5g tank too which some people say is not good either.
 
#7 ·
Here are a few pics after I vacuumed the substrate and sloped it up in the rear right corner. I totally blanked about the DW floating so well see what happens later tonight.

I LOVE the way the rocks look and I'm going to move the Aflame further to the right and mingle it up with the DW, when it sinks.



 
#10 ·
Those rocks have tons of character! How many discus do you plan to keep in there (I see 3)? Also what kind of wicked red sword is that? Looks sweet!
Thanks guys (funny that you two commented consecutively and both have Rams in your Avatar) the tank is coming along okay. I just haven't posted anything new because I had a crazy bout of GW and nothing spectacular has came out of it really. Sunday though, I tore a whole bunch of dead plants from the tank and rearranged where the Purple Bamboo and Polygonum Sao Paulo are. Actually I just looked and saw I hadn't posted pics since the very beginning when the DW wouldn't even stay submerged! Ill post some up tonight.

ADA- The purple sword plant is an Echinodorus Aflame or Purple Knight. Its the slowest growing sword EVER. I have had it for over a year and i have this plant and another so it split once for me on a whole year. Its temperamental at best and the leaves only survive for a few months so getting a thick full appearance is something I have not yet found to be possible since their super slow growth coupled with them getting ratty forces you to trim them. I just did it on Sunday and now I have like 3 small leaves again!

As far the Discus, I actually gassed the smallest one (I would have a nice group of 5-6 of I didn't gas them or kill them with Excel) about 3-4 weeks ago trying to kill the GW. And for future reference upping co2 when you have GW will only make it even worse. I am now a firm believer that the only think that will kill it is a UV sterilizer unless you have a low tech tank with Anubis and Java fern and can afford a week long (or longer) complete black out. I would like to have a group of 5-6 but the local pickings are so crappy. If you look at any of the pics I have posted of them you can see that they are stunted, have big ole eyes and really just dont look that good. I actually try to take the ones in worst shape since I can usually get them for next to nothing and I nurse them back to good health. Please anyone who is a Discus Nazi, spare me the lecture about needing x amount of g per fish. I have bred discus in this very tank and am quite aware that I will never have show quality fish growing them out in a tank like this. As I stated, they arent even anywhere near that quality anyway and I just want them to look good any be happy. Which they will be in this tank (barring and co2 gassing and excel Od'ing) :).
 
#12 ·
Yeah, most people (im talking 99%) have no idea what it entails to get smaller discus (2.5"-3.5") and try to get them to grow out to their full potential of 10" fish. Even if you had a 150g tank, that would make it even tougher because you would need to change 130g of the water 2x's a day and feed them 5-7x's a day. Then knowing only what they have read and other discus nazis postings think that if you have less than 10g per fish you are committing animal cruelty. It erks me to no end.

And no Solid, I am not referring to you so please dont think I am.
 
#19 ·
I have a new reason to dislike this tank, it seems that either from scrubbing the glass to clean GDA or the GDA somehow etches the glass I now have a tank with frosted glass! It's so hazy looking. I thought at first it was from particulates swirling about but looking through the water from above reveals a crystal clear view to the substrate. I also don't like this 37g because of its awkward dimensions, 24"T x 30"W x 12"D. When I purchased it I thought it was the best thing ever since I was more about the fish and not so much plants and scaping so when I found I could go from my 29 to a 37 and use the same stand I jumped on it. I really want a 40 breeder that would be excellent.

Anyway I just got some pretty cool plants. Eriocaulion parkeri, Lachnocaulon African Erio, Tonina "Narrow Leaf" and a mutated bi-color rotala butterfly.

Here are some stunning cell pics. I will break out the proper camera in a bit.
 
#29 ·
And it's only going to get better.

See this is how I work and from time to
Time what happens to me. I see an issue and go through everything and miss the big stuff because it's just too simple. I have no idea how long I had been running on only one bank of lighting. As soon as I saw that switch off I slapped myself in the face and stomped on my own foot! How stupid!

But now it's all good and the plants are looking very good IMO.

Love this picture:


I think you need to take that sponge filter and send it to me for my bba tank. It's so pretty. :)

By the way, with the rocks and the different colored plants, it reminds me of the fall mountains. Good job!

The difference in growth is outstanding.
I knew if you stopped by you would see the BBA covered intake sock and get amped up. It's a continual battle in this tank. I let it get crazy then let it sit in a cup filled with a very strong mix of excel and water then replace. Really though the more bba the better it probably filters and makes it more natural looking too.
 
#32 ·
Thanks friend. It's starting to look better. Also, I should have the snails tomorrow so I will for sure let you know and send some pics when they do.

I got my RKL all hooked up. It was a pita getting the power strip mounted because I only had hex flat head screws. But it's done now and I can tell you that if you spent retail on one ($110-120) it's 100% worth it. The system has a feel that is easily 5x more substantial than the coralife timer centers ( which I blew through 2 and both had some weird timer power issue). I don't understand how to set the timers yet but that will be taken care of shortly hopefully.
 
#34 ·
Hmm.. sounds good. I actually don't use a timer at all, which is probably REALLY bad..? I just turn it on when I get up in the morning and turn off at night.

Are you gonna post pics of your new setup? I wanna see! :)

Pretty excited about seeing the Nerites. The seller's pic looked really good. You can email them to me if you like? Thanks again!
 
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