Wow.. another excellent tank in your collection. So jealous. Haha
Those rocks have tons of character! How many discus do you plan to keep in there (I see 3)? Also what kind of wicked red sword is that? Looks sweet!
Thanks guys (funny that you two commented consecutively and both have Rams in your Avatar) the tank is coming along okay. I just haven't posted anything new because I had a crazy bout of GW and nothing spectacular has came out of it really. Sunday though, I tore a whole bunch of dead plants from the tank and rearranged where the Purple Bamboo and Polygonum Sao Paulo are. Actually I just looked and saw I hadn't posted pics since the very beginning when the DW wouldn't even stay submerged! Ill post some up tonight.
ADA- The purple sword plant is an Echinodorus Aflame or Purple Knight. Its the slowest growing sword EVER. I have had it for over a year and i have this plant and another so it split once for me on a whole year. Its temperamental at best and the leaves only survive for a few months so getting a thick full appearance is something I have not yet found to be possible since their super slow growth coupled with them getting ratty forces you to trim them. I just did it on Sunday and now I have like 3 small leaves again!
As far the Discus, I actually gassed the smallest one (I would have a nice group of 5-6 of I didn't gas them or kill them with Excel) about 3-4 weeks ago trying to kill the GW. And for future reference upping co2 when you have GW will only make it even worse. I am now a firm believer that the only think that will kill it is a UV sterilizer unless you have a low tech tank with Anubis and Java fern and can afford a week long (or longer) complete black out. I would like to have a group of 5-6 but the local pickings are so crappy. If you look at any of the pics I have posted of them you can see that they are stunted, have big ole eyes and really just dont look that good. I actually try to take the ones in worst shape since I can usually get them for next to nothing and I nurse them back to good health. Please anyone who is a Discus Nazi, spare me the lecture about needing x amount of g per fish. I have bred discus in this very tank and am quite aware that I will never have show quality fish growing them out in a tank like this. As I stated, they arent even anywhere near that quality anyway and I just want them to look good any be happy. Which they will be in this tank (barring and co2 gassing and excel Od'ing)