Discus Background Color

[BeefyG]

I'm setting up a 65 gallon bowfront for some blue diamond discus. I'm using Leslie's PFS for substrate. I will most likely be adding green fire tetras later as dither fish and maybe a blue ram or two. I'm not too crazy about the standard light blue discus background and I'm thinking it may not show up the blue diamond's colors too well. I'm leaning towards seafoam green but I'm not sure how it will look with the green fire tetras. Anybody have any other suggestions or comments? Will the background not matter as much since they are blue diamond instead of pigeon blood?

I was going to use a red/blue mirage paint kit just because I have it laying around but that was when I was planning on making it an angel tank. It is fairly dark. Bad idea for discus, right?

[wesleydnunder]

Background color is always a matter of personal taste. I have sky blue on mine, most folks have black... the one watermelon background I've seen looks surprisingly good. For me, black would probably show the fish up best.

Mark

[Complexity]

I don't have discus, but thought I'd add to the discussion that you also consider the decor you intend to put in the tank. Will you have rocks or driftwood? Plants? How much of the background will actually show once you get the decor in? How will the background look with algae on the back wall?

As Mark said, the background is a matter of taste. Just be sure to include all elements of the tank decor and not just the fish colors.

[BeefyG]

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...

[Complexity]

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.

[BeefyG]

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.

[mgarrido]

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.

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.

[Complexity]

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?

[Complexity]

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 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.

[mgarrido]

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.

[FrontosaurusRex]

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.

[mgarrido]

BeefyG if you are keeping adults discus you have more option for play with the parameters but if you are going with juvies try to keep your setup as much simple as you can. W/C, good filtration and good food is key for healthy discus, them when they are big you can try a planted tank setup.

[Darbex]

I say expirement with the colors if you dont like it take it off and try a new color. By the way I keep my tank at about 84 and its full of anubias and swords

[PhishPhreek]

I like pink for my dark bettas and blue for my light bettas

[Terrybo]

I once spray painted the back of a tank with a light coating of Tortoise Shell color FleckStone spray paint, which has flecks of sandstone, light brown, and light blue, and then I sprayed over that with regular spray paint in a color called wildflower blue - sort of a medium blue color. It was a good background for discus - I think blue ones would look good in it as well, but for blue discus I probably could have gone with more of the Fleck Stone spray paint and less of the blue. Anyhow, here is how it looked. (I used Alabaster color FleckStone spray paint on the bottom of the tank, since it was a bare bottom tank). You have to view the picture full size to get the effect of the textured paint.

Terry