Miscellaneous Discus Q's

[romosoldier]

just had some quick questions.
im looking to set up a discus tank, and i wanted to know peoples prefrences.

Substrate. gravel, or sand? i plan to have a planted tank, if that helps in the decision.

lighting?

thats about it for now. feel free to answer all or non of the q's lol. thanks.

 

[nikond70s]

depends on what kind of discus your getting. if you get albino's then you can pick any substrate you want. but a soil substrate is recommended for planted tanks such as eco-complete, flourite etc...in my opinion if your getting regular discus. you want to make the layout bright as possible. so white sand would be the best. or your discus will have ugly peppering unless you like it. and downside about white sand is that theres very lil to no nutrients so it limits to certain plants you can have...unless your going co2 then it doesnt matter. as for lightings anything in the 65k-10k is good for plants. the darker the environment the darker the discus will be...hint thats why they pepper up. the brighter the environment the vibrant the discus will be and have no peppering. unless you got some nice gene discus that has no peppering.if you get albino's u dont gotta worry about peppering.

 

[romosoldier]

cool, thanks for the info

 

[BODYDUB]

Planted tanks IMO are more trouble than helpful. It looks pretty and what not, but it's not an necessity for discus. Silk plants look almost as beautiful and don't require Co2, just a thought. But most discus set-ups are BB (bare bottom) tanks. Reason being is that they're easier to clean due to the almost everyday w/cs that are needed for discus. Discus are a great responsibility and require much attention, but the end reward awesome.
Here's a pic of my tank with silk ebay plants.

 

[Snowflake311]

Planted tanks are hard to clean. Also Discus like daily Wc and plants don't like daily WC plants like that build up of Nirtates and discus want very little to no Nitrates in the water.

I have wood and 2 fake plants with 2 sward plants that are not doing as well as they would in a normal tank. I like my discus tank to be easy to clean I like to move things around to make sure I get all the Junk up. Sand is the best Sustrate IMO for discus because all the poop and junk stays on top so it is easy to clean. Where gravel trapes all the gunk.

 

[romosoldier]

Yea, i tryed sand too but i kinda like gravel better, when i try to clean/ WC on sand bottom it just pics up too much sand, and you can always see all the poop just sitting there.

 

[Fishwhore]

in my planted 125 discus tank i use geophagus suraminsis(sp?) i use them to sift through the sand i have and break up the discus waste. it breaks up into smaller parts and gets sucked up into my overflows.... but now they are starting to dig up my plants...but i have aquariumplants.coms anchors to help.....

i like gravel....i guess it all depends on what look your going for.. im going for a show tank......