the final destination of this aquarium was absolutely phenomenal
but the road to get there was bumpy let me explain
now you'll remember that couple of 180 gallon tanks that I built into the wall that I also built
then I covered those walls with a cool wallpaper obviously the standing logs I added looked amazing
and complemented the wall perfectly I did this during the construction phase though and I was
just excited to see what it would look like and I was on a one-track mind once construction was done
reality set in I've done this before you know the standing log tank with a planted bottom discus and
tetras and no doubt that tank was absolutely beautiful and easily one of my favorite tanks
but to be fair been there done that now I have to admit I've had another idea for years
and it's haunted me an idea
that just kept lingering I'll be honest I had to taste I had to take the logs out
and Chase that idea now let me start this off by saying my favorite planted Aquarium of all
time was actually just a Manzanita with moss covering it and I know what you're thinking simple
yet stunning or at least you better the way the falling wood laid perfectly in the tank and the
Moss completely covered it was simply amazing to see now I didn't want to recreate that exact tank
but it did kind of fit the theme of the new tank idea that I had in mind yet I didn't have a piece
of wood that kind of matched what I wanted to do so what do we do when something's not available
we build it my idea was to create a centerpiece using a few spare Manzanita logs and some zip ties
I came up with a center focused piece now the zip ties are made of plastic they're going to
last in the aquarium forever and they're going to maintain this shape forever this piece ended
up being four feet long and around 18 inches wide and two feet tall perfect for the aquarium that
it's going into the perfect piece to allow the fish to swim all around it while staying easy
my favorite Aquarium all time anubias java moss java fern largely because I don't need a planted
substrate or I could put them in one I can attach them into anything but the biggest thing
is I can't kill them and moss in any aquarium is absolutely phenomenal so I had to attach it now
I have shown a couple of ways to attach moss in the past whether you're doing it to rocks or wood
or whatever you want to do it both with glue and sewing string while gluing gives an immediate and
permanent solution I found the moss grow slower and sometimes dies off a bit before it recovers
with sewing string it takes much longer to apply but the results end up being
much faster in terms of growth and turnaround time you can manually remove the string once
the Moss attaches to the wood and or rock or substrate or whatever you're attaching it to
or over time it's simply going to disintegrate I only covered the wood in patches of moss plants
are expensive but with moss it's eventually going to cover the entire piece of wood anyways
I took that wood with all that Moss all over it it added it to the tank but then something happened
I hated it something was off about it was it too much was it not enough am I just trying
to do something I like and make sure everybody else likes it as well yeah it was the latter
see if I'm going to keep the fish that I really want to keep in this fish long term I need to do
not only would I really want but what I know Works long term basically a tank on my terms
and you know what that means the sand has got to go
but with the sand gone I hated it even more but how do you keep a bare bottom tank
well kind of still making it look good you know you want the benefits you just don't
want sometimes it's an acquired taste obviously one option is to paint the bottom technically
the outside bottom but clearly this isn't an option they're built into the walls and
since I couldn't do that the next best thing and something that's arguably better tile it
you've seen me do that a few times in past tutorials almost fed on the wrong side yo guys
I was then left with a tiled bare bottom planted discus aquarium the dream was now a reality and
I'm absolutely in love with it but why later in the video because we're not done just yet
of course I can't be happy with the two breeding pair of discus that I added you see historically
I've only ever kept the same strain of discus in the same aquarium Tyrese is over there
of course to focus on breeding and you know not really cross the strains
you know and have them kind of muddy down and water down what they look like so I've literally
never had a true variety of discus living in the same tank besides my proven breeding pairs
but it seems sometimes the fish gods are watching over me and that is when my phone rang
oh hello it was Jeff from One Fish Two Fish in Dartmouth Nova Scotia and he immediately
says the Bangkok fish list is here oh that list is our favorite list it has all the cool fish
on it and before I can get another word in he starts listing off all the fish that he thinks
that I should get to be fair I sometimes think she lives vicariously through me wait wait wait well
I'd love to but I I definitely got to be more responsible and only get what I really want are
there any Red Tails on the list you know I need them for the aquaponics system and he said yes
okay get me two but that's all I need as always he responds with one word when I say I need something
he says done okay but I am curious are there any discus on the list he laughed and he's like
a ridiculous amount good get me 20. then we spent what must have been the next hour you
know going over the list seeing what they have and then he brings up the idea of
what about a hand-picked variety box and I thought to myself how does he know this is almost meant
to be so I only had one thing I had to say to him do it and well they land next week 20 hand-picked
variety discus I don't know what's coming I don't know how many of what I don't know their condition
I it's incredibly exciting to think we're gonna have a really interesting and fun display
of discus in a bare bottom tiled planted tank it's absolutely phenomenal and while I'd love
to sit here for the remainder of the evening I suspect you guys want to know a little bit
more about that tank and what's going on with it let's do it first and foremost
depending on the size of discus that come in my breeding pairs are going to have to go back into
breeding tanks the first thing was the male pigeon blood was an absolute Beast multiple
times larger than these guys and was picking on everybody so he's one in one of my breeding
tanks still I'm going to likely move uh well I have to move the female with him and the other
two I'm just letting them kind of settle in uh within a few days I also want to keep the tanks
cycled and waste going through it for the new fish but in a few days unlikely depending on the size
of these new discus that come in going to have to move them which isn't a problem it's like I
get to have my cake and eat it too I've got my breeding discus plus I have an awesome variety
tank of discus as well now let me explain why I love this skate first and foremost a tiled
bottom we went with like a brown coloration just to kind of keep with a earthy theme a few River
stones that I found locally and of course that mound of wood that we created it's perfect we're
going to take a look at it from a few different directions obviously it looks bigger from the
front than it actually is The discus will be able to swim all the way around it and up and
through it yet having some visual blocks on either side if we're on this side we can't
see the other discus yet they can swim around it in every direction and so can we we can enjoy it
from every direction I love the idea of putting these tanks in these walls having a planted bare
bottom discus tank it's an interesting concept isn't it and some people be like well that's not
a true planted tank it's more of a tank with plants on the contrary I would qualify it as
a planted tank there's plenty of plants in here and at some point oh once we upgrade the lights
and add one of my 10 pound CO2 tanks to it this tank would definitely look like a planted aquarium
but here's the benefit of doing it this way first and foremost with not a substrate look at all
the debris over here just settling there I can easily remove it allowing the water parameters
of this tank and the quality to stay perfect and stable all the time exactly what discus require
I don't need to do any siphoning there's not going to be this Tank's not going to age quickly we're
not going to have like old tank syndrome problems or anything like that and the more the moss grows
the more nutrients it's removing from the tank itself you can kind of see that it's already
kind of growing but obviously if we had some CO2 this stuff's going to explode and one of
the things you might notice with like heavily planted tanks is a lot of the times they'll put
discus in there but eventually they all remove the discus discus in a heavily planted tank
simply don't work out long term they have too many requirements they can be a little skittish
and when adding all the nutrients CO2 Etc et cetera the focus is usually on the plants
and not the fish this is a fun way to have a planted tank where the focus is on The discus
and not the plants yet the plants are going to do perfectly fine because Moss is so low
maintenance and requires so little it's likely going to do fine no matter what you do so this
tank is only going to get better with time now you might be thinking 20 discus in 180 gallon aquarium
that seems like a lot Joey well the rule of thumb with stalking with discus is simple 20 gallons for
the first fish 10 gallons for every fish after that it works out really well in most cases and
in most scenarios for example if you want to get into discus I always suggest getting six
gives you the best chances of success they do better in groups it's a natural uh competition
when feeding so they kind of entice each other to eat it's a higher possibility of getting a
pair or at least getting mixed Sexes so to reduce aggression plus having sex dilutes that aggression
with 20 everything just multiplies several times over but with that initial six 20 gallons for
the first fish 10 gallons for every fish after that what are we looking at around 70 gallons
yeah and a 75 to a 90 gallon is perfect for six two even upwards of eight discus if you're gonna
get into that 90 gallon range but with 180 gallon we're looking at being able to keep possibly 17.
but that basic rule of thumb applies to most tanks the bigger the tank gets the more surface area and
oxygen exchange that it offers which means you can house more fish that rule of thumb can increase
slightly 20 discus especially when they get full grown will make that tank look packed 2024 is the
max I would do in 180 gallons or 18 to 24 would be the max I would do in 120 gallon aquarium
or at 180 gallon aquarium but ordering in 20 especially coming all the way from Bangkok they
could be in a flight from anywhere from 24 to 48 hours there could potentially be some doas this
allows me to have a little bit of buffer meaning that I'll likely end up with like maybe 14 to 16
of them however every time we order from this wholesaler everything comes in perfect fingers
crossed it happens again because they arrive next week and if you're excited to see that make sure
you're subscribed if you're not already I'll see you guys in the next video oh and I'll leave you
with this if you guys enjoyed these kind of story times they're some of my favorite is
telling a story about something that happened in my hobby like we just did check the link in
my bio it's going to take you to Facebook and Instagram I'm also going to have a link to all
of 2023 where I'm going back to fish stores and Aquarium clubs to help promote them to increase
their membership and simply just uh support them so I guess I should say I might just see you soon
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