160g Discus Journal

[wesleydnunder]

they were getting along ok, the discus just weren't eating as much so we sold all the angels today...hopefully we will start to see more growth in the discus now that they dont have to compete for food.

Great idea. With 4 or five feedings a day your juvies showed show much better growth without the competition.

Mark

[nikkijean1]

they were getting along ok, the discus just weren't eating as much so we sold all the angels today...hopefully we will start to see more growth in the discus now that they dont have to compete for food.

[Darbex]

So they discus and angels still getting along?

[nikkijean1]

Here is a pic of one of the discus....they are getting much bigger and starting to get some coloring....

[FrontosaurusRex]

Darbex: Thank you for that post. That was a really good example of dark vs. light colored substrate. I'm gonna go pick up some PFS this week and redo the substrate. I wanna see what the background looks like with lighter sand anyway. I'll post a pic of that whan I'm done. I still wanna experiment with a pastel yellow, bright orange and maybe a pink background. I have plenty of time to play with the options since these guys are so small. I'll keep you guys updated.

[specialone0812]

i used dark sand substrates in my discus tanks before, and some of my red melon, pigeon red and some more with red gene got peppering. if you're keeping Wild or Blue diamond, you should be fine. IMO, your discus will show more color with lighter sand.

[Darbex]

Here is a good example look at the post from Alex R near the bottom of the page he shows his discus on a brown substrate compared to a white substrate and you can see a major difference

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?t=68304&highlight=dark+substrate&page=2

[Darbex]

Dont take my post the wrong way you can put discus with dark substrate its just in my opinion they just dont show their brightest with dark substrates as they do with lighter ones. I noticed a difference in my wilds when I was using Warehouse PFS compared to Leslies PFS as Leslies is a lighter hue and my wilds are much brighter now.

[Matt in Houston]

I would leave the background alone and play with the lighting first....changing bulbs can dramatically change the look without having to repaint. Also the lighter sand is going to reflect more light against the background and that will help to lighten it up a little as well.

Good luck, and thumbs up from me I personally like the paint color....I also agree with light colored sand for discus tanks..

[FrontosaurusRex]

I like the scape. I think its different and original. I dont think this scape is going to work for discus in the long run but this would make a sick African tank. I think I'm gonna lighten the background color, use PFS and add a few pieces of driftwood as accents. I like the big rocks though. I think they look really clean with the Discus. I'll switch it up this weekend and post some more pics next week.

[nikkijean1]

thanks for the opinions, i really am not crazy about the pic we posted, it doesnt do it justice, i think it looks much better in person, the black sand was one of my favorite parts but it may not work in the long run for discus, but i def like the look it has, but like i said the pics just dont show it off....but i am sure that is true with alot of tanks...

[Darbex]

I wouldnt use dark or black sand with the discus they will darken their colors to match their surroundings and you wont get the full color of your discus.

[Mzungu]

I kinda like the black sand, actually. :) I think it really enhances the rocks and the background color. But it might look totally different when the discus are bigger, so who knows? I like it, though, nice job!

The whole "look" of the tank reminds me of something that I can't quite figure out...I'll have to think on it some more.

[wesleydnunder]

I've seen some really nice biotope discus tanks with just driftwood and white sand. Can you get some closer pics of the discus?

Mark

[FrontosaurusRex]

I think when we transfer everything into the 160g, i'll switch substrates and try to either add some thin driftwood pieces or some plants. I kind of liked the emptiness of the tank. I thought it looked kind of "artistic". LOL. I really wanna try to do something completely different with these Discus.