Substrate for 125 gallon discus tank!

[Maich]

I'm planning on having LARGE pieces of driftwood and realistic fake plants...

I need to know what type of substrate you guys think i should use, I was thinking natural colored gravel, because sand is a pain in the ass to do maintenance on... Any suggestions?

Edit: also im looking for a substrate that will bring out all the colors in my discus, i plan on having 50/50 actinic/daylights in the tank.

Edit: i will have undergravel/sand pvc with slits all along the pipes, pushing about 2000 gph, would sand still work?

 

[clownie33]

black tahitian moon sand is great for ph and holds temp well if you what more natural you could use amozon red sand but the black would really make the colors on your discus pop

 

[clownie33]

I need to know what type of substrate you guys think i should use, I was thinking natural colored gravel, because sand is a pain in the ass to do maintenance on...




sand is not at all hard to do maitenance on all the **** just sits on top and all you have to do is hover with your gravel vac what difficulties have you had maintaning your sands because i have had none

 

[DanG13]

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

 

[Maich]

Im always a cluts and end up sucking a bunch of sand right out of the tank... i do have aragonite in my 55 gallon african and i really like it... Also another factor i forgot to tell you guys, i am going to have undergravel pvc, with slits cut all along the top pushing about 2000gph coming from under the gravel/sand, would the sand fly into the water?

 

[clownie33]

no it shouldn't fly up to much if anything it would just keep the **** from ever hitting the sand and it would just go into your filter then all you would ever have to do is siphon the water out and you wouldnt even have to worry about your gravel vac sucking up sand since you said that is your problem with sand

 

[Maich]

no it shouldn't fly up to much if anything it would just keep the **** from ever hitting the sand and it would just go into your filter then all you would ever have to do is siphon the water out and you wouldnt even have to worry about your gravel vac sucking up sand since you said that is your problem with sand

Ok, that may be what i do then. Will driftwood and plants look good with this sand?

 

[clownie33]

driftwood and plants look great and if you wanted you could build a stacked slate cave looks good to i did that in mine if you are going to use live plant put a small layer of enriched argonite or substrate under the sand and it will give them something easier to root in and provide more nutrients than the sand alone

 

[DiscusOnly]

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

Depending on the strain of discus. Dark color background or substrates will bring out the peppering in pigeon based discus. In general, color of discus will be darker as well.

Maich: If pool filter sand is too fine for you, try silica sand gravel. That's what I use in my wild discus tank. I didn't want to use the regular pool filter sand in this tank because it's acrylic.

 

[Maich]

Depending on the strain of discus. Dark color background or substrates will bring out the peppering in pigeon based discus. In general, color of discus will be darker as well.

Maich: If pool filter sand is too fine for you, try silica sand gravel. That's what I use in my wild discus tank. I didn't want to use the regular pool filter sand in this tank because it's acrylic.

Thats true... And i would definitely like to have some pigeon bloods. The background is already black though, is there a substrate i can use that wont show up poop and debris on the bottom of the tank, that is heavy enough so i can have my PVC thingymajig?