Downstairs, I was keeping a heavily planted and lighted 180x60x60cm freshwater tank with some discus and other fish. In order to being able to keep the plants, there were some minerals and hardness in the not colored water.

Having my wild discus (Blueface Heckel from Rio Negro) in mind, I decided to redo the tank and turn it into something Rio Negro biotope like. That’s nearly no hardness and minerals in the water, no plants, lots of wood, leaves, yellowish sand etc. etc.
The river biotope is called “Rio Negro”, because there are lots of humic acids and tannins that add color and lowers the pH.
In my case this is done with different leaves and the wood (moor). Later, the filter will be prepared with peat.

The Heckel discus and also about 50 blue Neon Tetras (Paracheirodon simulans) from the previous setup are swimming in 200 liter plastic rainbarrels. The rainbarrels are connected to the two box filters, that will later be reconnected to the tank.
For now, tank has to cycle and fish are very slowly adapted to the new tank water in the meantime.
Think I’ll still have to wait a week to move them in.