Substrate for 125 gallon discus tank!

[DiscusOnly]

First of all, what is the PVC thingymajig thing supposed to do? Are you planning to do a planted tank or just tank with some dw? Keeping discus is simple if you keep things simple.

If you don't like to see poop on the bottom, the best way to do is to vac it up. If you get some clean pigeon based discus, the black background won't be that bad.

I gravel sand I recommend is much heavier than the pool filter sand but these are still relatively small.

 

[Mattyou]

With your pvc setup your tank will look like the dust bowl if you use sand, post pictures.
I recommend natural gravel, even river rock from the hardware store well rinsed. Cheap and natural looking, reverse flow filter wont blow it into the water column.
Like I said, post some pics if u use sand and reverse flow so I can enjoy em.

 

[Mattyou]

I have noticed when I use black colored sand/gravel the
colors of my fish come out alot more. You know what they
say "once you go black you never go back". lol

I always hear "Once you go black you start smoking crack and that **** is whack"
East Coast I guess.

 

[clownie33]

if you don't want the poop and junk to show as much go with the amozon river red substrate you can find it on aquaruimplants .com and you can find drift wood and all the other stuff your looking for plus the amozon subtrate already comes enriched so you wouldn't need another base substrate for your plants

 

[snoopy65]

Unless you are planning on doing a thorough gravel vaccing every day, I would go with a white or light colored sand. Discus require very clean water and too much stuff gets stuck down in the gravel. Your black background will darken and or pepper all discus except albino strains. The light bottom should help counter act that, but understand, discus attempt to match their color to their surroundings so if their surroundings are dark, so will they be. I also would look at getting discus at least 4" in size. Smaller/ juvie discus require even more maintenance and multiple daily feedings or they will stunt. The larger the discus is when you get them, the more forgiving they are as far as maintenance goes.