Some Q's for you Discus and Plant Experts...

well, I can't help much with the questions about discus but I'll tell you what I can.

Gravel/sand:
To test it, get a bottle of muriatic acid and put a small sample in a shot glass or similar and cover it with the muriatic acid. Careful, this is REALLY nasty stuff. it eats concrete. If you see any bubbling, the gravel with raise your ph and hardness. Vinegar will also work, but muriatic acid is stronger and so detects smaller traces that would leach out slowly.

Lighting:
6 tubes seems like a lot. That's 3.2wpg. On that large of a tank, that's a lot of light. You will definitely want to supplement the substrate with fertilizer tabs or a bottom layer of laterite, a layer of flourite, etc, as well as dosing ferts and you'll need pressurized CO2. if you don't get the proper balance of ferts and CO2 to match your nighting, you'll probably always battle with algae.

Also, remember that if you add duckweed to the top to shade the fish, it will also shade the plants and they won't get as much light either. watts per gallon means watts reaching the water. if the duckweed blocks 70% of the light, the plants will be in the equivalent of ~1wpg.

Hope that helps, and good luck with the discus project!

well if you want a really impressive freshwater, I'd go with a substrate like flourite or eco-complete, I haven't used either, so I cant give you an opinion on what the best is. Keep the 6 fluorescent tubes, and a pressurized CO2 system with a pH controller to keep your CO2 at about 20-25ppm. you'll also need to dose a PMDD type solution with all the macros and traces. plantguild.com had a good price on pmdd mix if you don't want to mess with the individual components, otherwise read up on how PMDD works. search for it on google; it's a bit in-depth.

maybe get an automatic doser too... eheim makes one that hangs on the back of your tank like an automatic feeder.

That should result in a very impressive planted setup. It will cost a few bills, but look quite nice.

Personally, I wouldn't use the wet/dry. Keep the sump, it's a good place to put your heater, co2 reactor, etc, but the wet/dry would be unneccesary in a heavily planted setup and really will only serve to waste CO2.

HTH and be sure to post some pictures when it's set up!

Chico raton has it pretty good there.
With the increase o2 put into the water from the wet dry you will lose a lot of co2.

Remember when using ferts not to over do it more is not better.

I wouldnt suggest adding duckweed as it will soon block out almost all of your light for your other plants


marc
Http://www.Aquatic-store.com

Co2, Plants, Substrate, Filters, Heaters, UV and more

I'm a discus beginner, but I'm pretty sure I have the basics down.

The first is that I'd like to use sand/tiny gravel from a local mountain stream. I currently have it in a few tanks and it doesn't seem to effect the water any by raising the hardness or anything. However the PH of the tank is 7. The tank I'm setting up is going to have a lower PH. Just a little above 6 hopefully. I was wondering if it's in my head, or is there a chance of the lower PH effecting the water hardness or stuff being released by the rocks. The water from my tap has a PH of 6 and is very soft and that's what I'll be doing the water changes with.

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First off, why do you want the pH lower? It's only necessary (sp) if you are planning on breeding and want larger fry batches. A pH of 7 will be perfectly fine for keeping discus; I keep mine at a pH of 7.8.

As for the gravel, I don't see why you can't use it as long as you disinfect it before putting it in the tank.

Second is I was thinking of adding 6 small discus to the tank. I'm not sure if I'll have any other tanks mates or not but if anything a small school or cardinals and maybe a few cories and shrimp. Is 6 too many for the tank, or has what I've read about it being fine correct?

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Six is a good number, especially with juvenilles as there will be bullying and there's not much you can do about it except add more targets for the bully. Discus also feel safer when in larger numbers.

My third question is... I plan on using 6 48" flo tubes for lighting. I've read that discus like lower light but I need the watts per gallon for the plants. Would using something like duckweed on the top reduce the light enough?

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Discus do just fine in higher light. I have one tank with 3.5 WPG with a juvenille in it, and another with 2.8 WPG where the two in there are doing great as well. You'll also see people who have BB tanks; from what I've seen they are all very bright. They will adjust easily.

Fourth... I'm going to be using a wet/dry filter, tetra 60, and HOT Magnum for filtration. From what I've read discus like still water, so I plan on building some type of outlet to divert the water from the pump all over the tank. My question though is. I've read that carbon in filters is a bad idea with discus? Correct or no?

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They don't mind a little current... just as long as it isn't white water rapids, I'd think they would be fine. Carbon may filter out your fertilizers. It's not needed in really any tank, so I'd ditch it all together.

Fifth... Do I need to supplement CO2 in the tank with the plants? I plan on supplmenting fertilizer in the tank for the plants.

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It would be most beneficial, especially with the high lighting and higher temperatures which will be on the tank.

And Sixth... Any tips or tricks you guys and gals could offer on discus and plants would be greatly appreciated.

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1.) High temperatures are a must with discus. I like to keep my tanks at 85-86F. 82F is reallly the minimum for adult fish, 84F is the minimum for juvenilles.
2.) If your fish show signs of distress (hiding, dark color, not eating) then raise the temperature slowly to 88-90F.
3.) Always quarentine new arrivals; always.
4.) If you can afford it, start out with 5''+ fish for a planted tank. This way you don't have to worry about growing them out as much. Most keepers raise younger discus in bare bottom tanks; mainly because of the ammount of food the younger ones need throughout the day. 6-8 small feedings a day is the norm. They keep them in BB tanks because they are easier to clean when you are feeding that much. From what I've heard, you can grow them out in a 29g BB easily and then put them in your planted tank once they are larger. If you want to raise them in a planted tank, the more water changes, the better. I would say at least 2X 30-50% a week.
5.) Avoid fish under 2'', they are still in a delicate stage and can be hard to keep and raise.
6.) Avoid fast moving or excessivly nippy tank mates and fish that can't handle temperatures above 80F well (such as neons and guppies). Build the tank around the discus and remember to leave open, field like areas so the discus have plenty of space for the discus to swim once they are adult size.
7.) Avoid sites and books that don't specialize in discus. They sometimes seem like they want to scare people away from them by saying they are hard to keep and you need to do daily water changes... in truth, discus are really easy to keep just as long as you meet their needs, like any other fish. Once they are adults, they can pretty much be treated like any other tropical with weekly 30% water changes.

HTH
Puma