Planting Your Discus Tank
Before planting your discus aquarium, you should make a rough sketch of how the tank should look. Include rocks, wood structures, and plants you want to have so you have a plan to follow when creating your aquarium.
Foreground
Foreground plants are placed in the front of your other plants. They are small and do not grow to be very tall. They produce many runner plants, which create a carpet-like effect.
Middle ground
Middle-ground plants can be used to block the stems of plants that are in the background. Their size is somewhere between the size of foreground and background plants.
Background
Background plants grow fast and are kept in the back of the aquarium. Because of their height, these plants are good for keeping heaters, filters, hoses, and wires out of site because these plants require less light than foreground and middle-ground plants.
Bunch Plants
Bunch plants are good to use in the middle ground or background and look good in a group. Cuttings are the usual method of propagating bunch plants.
Specimen Plants
A specimen plant can be used as a focal point in your tank. They are usually large and decorative. Usually only one of these plants is placed in the middle ground or background. This plant can be highlighted with a spotlight.
Contrast Plants
You can use different-looking plants to contrast with the main plants that you have in your tank. For example, red-leafed plants contrast nicely with green plants, while plants with pointed leaves will contrast well with plants that have large, round leaves. You want to spread out plants that have similarities in color, size, or shape and place plants with differences closer together.
Floating Plants
Floating plants require a lot of light and they tend to grow quickly. Because they float, it is important to remember to protect them from leaf burn. You need to make sure there is plenty of distance between the plants and the light bulb. Because they grow quickly, they can block out light in an aquarium, so they need to be kept out of the light path of plants that require a lot of light.
Aquatic plants are very buoyant so a weighted base will help them stay in the sand unless they are weighted at the base. Plants sold by dealers usually have lead strips attached. If you are propagating your own plants, you will want to use sheet lead that is sold by a dealer. This way it will be free of impurities that can harm your fish.
You will want to cut the sheet lead into strips that are a quarter of an inch wide and two inches long. Bend the strips you cut lightly around the crowns of the plants. If the plants are cuttings, you can also clip the strips on to the bases of the stems. Remember to be careful not to crush the stems. If you leave the ends of the strip sticking out it increases anchorage. Once the plant has taken root, you can remove the lead strips.
Flat stones can also be used to hold down cuttings, but it is not as neat or easy to do as using the lead clips. You will lay the base of the cuttings horizontally on the sand then lightly place the stone over them. When the crowned plants have taken root, you can place small stones around their base to prevent them from rising.
When planting crowned plants you should disentangle the roots and spread them out in a radiating pattern. They should then be completely buried in the sand. Make sure the crown of the plant is above the surface of the sand, otherwise it may decay and the leaves will die.
The roots of bushy plants should be spread out in the same way, but you don't need to worry about a crown.
If you have a cutting with no roots, you can cut off the lowermost half-inch of the crown with a razor blade before placing it into the sand. The fresh tissue that you have just exposed will very likely produce roots.
Some plants have a better appearance when they are planted separately, but others look better when they are planted in a bunch. Keep in mind with bunch plants that you don't want to over crowd them. You just want to make sure they will look like a bunch when they are full grown.
