Discus Background Color

[puncak82]

I think it's a bad idea to have black background color for discus. Blue or white background should be the best.

[Darbex]

I dont know this as fact just heard from people on Simplydiscus that black backgrounds will cause discus to darken and pigeon bloods will pepper more.

[wesleydnunder]

It will have rocks to begin with and then I'll add in/ swap out for manzanita wood later. I'd like to do it lightly planted but it seems plants don't do too well with the high temps discus like. I'll probably try it but there won't be enough plants in there to cover the background. I think it would look realistic with a little rock, a little wood, and the green background but I've never tried it. None of my tanks have a painted background but the walls in my fish room are a sage green color. Hrmm... maybe I'll use that instead... I have some leftover...

How high will the temps be? Most planted tanks run pretty hot because of the lighting. Mine are generally around 80°, give or take 2-3°. I've never heard of plants being adversely affected by heat in a tank.

If you want to get creative without being overly busy or just plain solid, consider varying the shade of the color from top to bottom. You can have the top be the lighter shade, gradually getting darker as you go towards the bottom. Just a thought to spur ideas.

What I was told is 82 is the minimum for discus and 84 is the max for most plants. I really like the gradient idea... perhaps done with black spray paint and then the green over that? I'll have to try it and see how it turns out.

For Discus temps requiered is 85F to 90F, not to much plants can survive and also requiere massive W/C (at least 50% every other day). I like the dark color background for the blue diamond, i keep mine with a navy background (that is the color of my wall) wih PFS, manzanita and anubias attached to the manzanita, also a couple of amazon swords with root tabs every month.

Practice on newspaper until you get the effect you want; otherwise, you could end up with stripes and not a gradient.

Who said plants can't go over 84°? I can't say it's not true, but it's news to me. Never heard of that. I've known people with planted tanks to raise temps for ich breakouts without anyone commenting on it being harmful for plants. Further, there are a LOT of people who have discus in planted tanks. I think someone may have meant well, but passed on some inaccurate information or maybe overgeneralized (with some plants being affected, but not "most").

IF you want plants in the tank, then I'd check further into which plants work well with discuss. That may affect the background you select. For example, in the pic in my sig line, the background and substrate are both black for a reason. It makes the plant colors pop. But if you look at it, there really isn't that much black showing because the decor covers it.

Ditto with a gradient background. If plants and decor cover the bottom 1/2 of the tank, then only the top 1/2 of the background will show which may make the gradient affect show up poorly. Or that might be desirable.

Have you looked around for examples of tanks that you like and would like to use for inspiration for your own tank design?

I wonder how the people with planted discus tanks are able to do it? Maybe they're using a limited group of plants?

As far as the W/Cs go, that won't hurt plants at all. They'll actually love it. So that's definitely not an issue.

Some plants can support the high temps for discus tanks:
Anubias barteri ''coffeefolia''
Anubias Afzelli
Anubias Barteri
AnubiasCaladafolia
Anubias Heterophylla
Anubias Nana
Crinum (water Onion) Thaianum)
Crinum Natans
Cryptocoryne Beckettii
Cryptocoryne Balansae
Cryptocoryne Petchi
Cryptocoryne Wendtii (Green)
Cryptocoryne Wendtii De Witt (Red)
Amazon Broadleaf (Echnidorus Bleheri)
Ozelot (Ech. Ozelot)
Pennywort (Hydrocotyle leucocephala)
Temple (stricta) Hygrophilia Corombosa)
Hygro (Hygrophilia Polysperma)
Java Fern (Microsorum pteropus )
Java Fern, Lace Windelov
Saggitaria Subulata (Narrow Leaf)
Jungle Vallisneria
Italian Vallisneria
Spiralis Vallisneria

I had very good result with my Discus planted tank at 85F, Co2 and ADA soil as substrate.

This tank was kept at 86F. It was up and running hi lite/co2/fert for seven years or so.



Mark

[Complexity]

This tank was kept at 86F. It was up and running hi lite/co2/fert for seven years or so.

Beautiful! Tank, plants, and discus!

It's tanks like yours I was thinking of. While I've never had discus before, I've seen many discus in planted tanks so I know it's possible. I think the discus look stunning in a planted tank. Very serene, and their colors really pop.

[BeefyG]

dude, before you even said seafoam green, I was literally thinking, "this guy should go nuts and use a wild color like green or dark purple." I say, experiment. Go nuts with it. If you hate it, you can always use a razor blade and scrape it off. As soon as I get a new tank, I'm gonna do a dark Ingigo on the back wall for my Fronts.

I tried out the Mirage paint kit on a spare pane of glass today and it looks awesome! It turned out a sparkly navy blue / purple but that was with the minimum coats so the glass is still a little transparent. I'll give it a shot and if the discus don't like it I'll change it. I'll post pics probably tomorrow.

[mgarrido]

This was my Discus planted tank
- Black background
- Ada soil middle to back, torpedo sand middle to front
-CO2 24x7, and weekly ferts
-Hi Ligth (12hr photoperiod 4x96w and 4hr 4x150w MH)
- Temp 85F

Aquarium 117medium.jpg

[myjohnson]

PIMP light!

[Complexity]

I tried out the Mirage paint kit on a spare pane of glass today and it looks awesome! It turned out a sparkly navy blue / purple but that was with the minimum coats so the glass is still a little transparent. I'll give it a shot and if the discus don't like it I'll change it. I'll post pics probably tomorrow.

I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out!

This was my Discus planted tank

Gorgeous!

[BeefyG]

Pics are:
Tank as it was when I bought it off craigslist
Masked off to paint the trim (the maroon was peeling)
The stand I made out of an old fence and a cabinet I never got around to building
The tank without the light on looks like it has a black background
The tank with a light on looks blue where the light hits it (I need to get a proper light for this tank)

[BeefyG]

Here is a closeup of the paintjob... it is really hard to get a good photo to show what this really looks like.

I thought maybe it would show up better if I filled the tank with water... and found out its leaking now! :furious: I checked it last night and it was fine so it was either all the moving it around today or when I dumped the substrate in it. I found out that you don't just turn a bucket of rinsed sand upside down over the tank. The water almost got up to the ceiling!

[Complexity]

Wow, nice redo on the tank! It doesn't even look like it did when you got it. I can't wait to see you get this one up and running.

[Complexity]

Here is a closeup of the paintjob... it is really hard to get a good photo to show what this really looks like.

I thought maybe it would show up better if I filled the tank with water... and found out its leaking now! :furious:

Oh no! I hope it's something minor. You've put in a lot of good work in the tank.

[BeefyG]

Oh no! I hope it's something minor. You've put in a lot of good work in the tank.

I'm just going to redo the inner seals. I probably should have done that anyway since some of them had black stuff underneath so probably this tank leaked before. There is lots of tiny globs of silicone in the tank so I think somebody patched it at one point. Oh well, if I do it right once, once should be all I need.

[Complexity]

It sounds like this tank is going to be really solid and good looking when you're done!

[BeefyG]

It sounds like this tank is going to be really solid and good looking when you're done!

Thanks! There was a lot of water under the front seal when I cut it out so I'm guessing the leak was along there. I resealed it but made the mistake of trying to touch up after it had tacked over so I had a few trouble spots. Also, I found out the trim still was holding water after I had done the silicone and so it just wasn't curing underneath. Fortunately (I guess) the tank is in my garage and so when the temp dropped, the water still in the bottom trim tried to freeze but instead pushed its way through a weak spot. I drilled a drain hole in the trim and put a second coat of silicone on the inside and this time it held. The tank has had water in it for a few days. I put the sand back in this weekend, set up the light I bought from Darbex, and put some plants and driftwood in it. I'll post some pictures once the water clears. It still has some haze to it even though I rinsed the sand. Its not bad but its enough to mute the color effect of the background.

Btw, I noticed for the first time while typing this that your siggy pic is a GIF and changes. Pretty cool