What looks better? With or Without plants?
- Thread starter jcardona1
- Start date
How long did you have your mains power out for, in order to loose plants & what sort of plants did you loose?
I have had my 65g set up bare bottom (BB) with a generous amount of driftwood to begin with. However every-time I had the lights on the fish seemed uneasy. Some tried to hide, but could not relax anywhere. So I ended up blocking a feet of the light completely & half shading a another feet. That seem to settle things pretty good.
A couple of days-ago I have placed all my plants from the 47g across to the 65g & this added more driftwood with the plants attached & it's somewhat full now, but there is still adequate space to swim in.
Now the behavior of the fish is so relaxed, I could not go back to driftwood only. Mind you I had four medium size driftwood in there. See video with driftwood only => http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISXr5IzkURk
Today I could not spot my smaller BGK in it's 2" PVC tube at all. I got worried it got stuck somewhere or jumped out. Turned out it decided to re-home it self into the driftwood, near the second larger BGK
I was so relieved & chaffed, that I immediately removed the PVC eyesore given it's not really needed anymore
All the fish are active including the BGK's while the light is on (1x Aqua-Glo). There are rest periods, when the tank seems empty due to various reasons, but later on the tank is buzzing again with innocent activity. Only the male Polleni is asserting him self by giving the female a bit of a friendly chase often (typical male chauvinist).
So I vote for plants & driftwood, even if they are plastic ones
I have had my 65g set up bare bottom (BB) with a generous amount of driftwood to begin with. However every-time I had the lights on the fish seemed uneasy. Some tried to hide, but could not relax anywhere. So I ended up blocking a feet of the light completely & half shading a another feet. That seem to settle things pretty good.
A couple of days-ago I have placed all my plants from the 47g across to the 65g & this added more driftwood with the plants attached & it's somewhat full now, but there is still adequate space to swim in.
Now the behavior of the fish is so relaxed, I could not go back to driftwood only. Mind you I had four medium size driftwood in there. See video with driftwood only => http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISXr5IzkURk
Today I could not spot my smaller BGK in it's 2" PVC tube at all. I got worried it got stuck somewhere or jumped out. Turned out it decided to re-home it self into the driftwood, near the second larger BGK
I was so relieved & chaffed, that I immediately removed the PVC eyesore given it's not really needed anymore
All the fish are active including the BGK's while the light is on (1x Aqua-Glo). There are rest periods, when the tank seems empty due to various reasons, but later on the tank is buzzing again with innocent activity. Only the male Polleni is asserting him self by giving the female a bit of a friendly chase often (typical male chauvinist).
So I vote for plants & driftwood, even if they are plastic ones
Jose, you know how I feel, but you are an artist. those plastic plants look amazing. I had fake plants many moons ago and they looked great. the problem was that every now and then I had to remove them and soak them in bleach because of the algae. nothing is ever easy when you combine water and light.
Your Discus are fine but all your plants died? 
I don't think I will ever keep live plants...
I think it looks more natural without the plants - it is actually very rare to see densely planted habitats in the wild.
Either way, it is still a great-looking tank!
I don't think I will ever keep live plants...I think it looks more natural without the plants - it is actually very rare to see densely planted habitats in the wild.
Either way, it is still a great-looking tank!
J, first off, just want to give my condolences about the power outage. That just sucks. All your hard work... (ok, I'm sure you've heard enough).
So I was thinking. Why not sell your discus (I know you haven't had them long) and start a reef with that gorgeous rimless tank? You already have the T5hos? Right?
Just a thought. If not, I'm not a fan of fake plants (even though I have a 75 gal with them in it lol). Get more wood, maybe different colours.
So I was thinking. Why not sell your discus (I know you haven't had them long) and start a reef with that gorgeous rimless tank? You already have the T5hos? Right?
Just a thought. If not, I'm not a fan of fake plants (even though I have a 75 gal with them in it lol). Get more wood, maybe different colours.
Ogrim;4770503; said:
I had hygrophila polysperma and blyza japonica. The hygro would have been ok, but my favorite plant the blyxa was completely wiped out. Not sure how long the power was out, but we were gone for about 4 days. Also, I added Bifuran to treat a sick discus, which turns out is very lethal to plants. So this ended up killing the plants after the power outage.
3dees;4771179; said:
LOL yeah I know. I'd love to go for the look of your tank but the black substrate isn't working. I need a light colored sand to make it look good. And since I want to keep the substrate just in case I do plants again, I don't know what to do!
Dan Feller;4771222; said:Your Discus are fine but all your plants died?
I think it looks more natural without the plants - it is actually very rare to see densely planted habitats in the wild.
Either way, it is still a great-looking tank!
Yeah that's the thing. If I'm going for a natural discus setup it would need to be sand, and a just a few pieces of wood. The plants were killed due to the power outage, and a subsequent treatment of Bifuran medication. When I got home the discus were almost dead. They were all dark and on their sides. Luckily they pulled through.
geronimo69;4771229; said:
Haha no way I can do that, I have 4 wild discus coming from John, landing on Tuesday
Both pictures are very nice. For some reason I have something against fake plants, so I voted for w/out fake, but obviously I would vote for plants if they were real.
