Want to go BB

[Cichlidcraze]

Hi all. I am thinking of going BB and just wanted to ask a question. My tank rests on white styrofoam. Do i need to paint the bottom?

Cass

[sholvey]

Hello Cass, My opinion is no you don't need to. I actually have a BB for my grow out tank and I have nothing underneath and my discus do just fine.

[Bill63SG]

I actually paint my bottoms white,so if you like it,keep it.I had small issues when not painted and on a stand,ocational fish sometimes seemed a little lost,personal prefference.

[Cichlidcraze]

Thanks. I will try it and see how it goes. BB will make cleaning a whole lot easier. I may just leave a little sand patch for my Bolivian rams to sift through. Rams like the sand, i dont think Discus do. When it gets sand in its mouth, it spits it out along with the food it was trying to eat. Very messy.

Cass

[Bill63SG]

read around here more,lots have pool sand in thier tanks,discus like to puff at it to uncover food.Im not a fan of it.

[Cichlidcraze]

I used to have silica sand(sold as pool filter sand here in SA), but had lots of problems with brown diatom algae. I then switched to river sand, which the sand sifting species really like. The problem with this type of sand is that it gets sucked up alot when i use my gravel vacuum. With the amount of wc i do since having Discus, BB just seems to make more sense.

[Bill63SG]

i never messed with sand.I have I planted with substrate,and 22 bb.

[Rudustin]

I have all bare bottom tanks not painted and my discus are fine.

[Meilidiscus]

I have stones now and have always wanted to change it to sand but now it seems that sand is not ideal too.

[Rudustin]

Once you get over the esthetics of no decorations or minimalism it all seems natural actually. I have five tanks with only discus in the tanks. They are all bare bottomed and the discus are thriving because it is so easy to clean and do water changes.

[Cichlidcraze]

So i removed about 80% of the sand during my wc today. I left two small patches of sand around the wood in my tank. The fish seem a little freaked out about it at the moment, might take them a little time to get used to it. Filling the tank was so easy, as i didnt have to worry about directing the pipe to not disturb the sand. Simply hooked the pipe onto the tank and started the pump. My discus colours have also lightened up. I am very pleased with the result.

Cass

[trungnguyen]

I was so stubborn before about keeping discus with gravel and planted tanks. However, problems kept coming back and ford to me, so I listened to my friends and switched to BB. At first, I didn't get used to how the tank looked and my discus, but after for awhile, I'm happy now with all healthy and colorful discus...feed them and clean water easier than ever. ;)


Trung.

[dkeef]

I moved from gravel to pfs and id say its almost as good as bb. Cuz i have bb qt tanks.
Most waste goes into sump and all the remaining waste(mostly all pleco poops) stay on top and theres only few spots i need to vaccum during wc. Takes 3min tops.
I do think bb is best but if u have good flow, good sand then sand is almost as easy.
For the first time my nitrate is now 5ppm.
With gravel, it was 20-40ppm.

[Meilidiscus]

What is pfs ? Sorry I am still a newbie.

[Tazalanche]

What is pfs ? Sorry I am still a newbie.pool filter sand

[Meilidiscus]

Thanks David, wonder if they available at the LFS.

[Tazalanche]

It is usually purchased from a hardware store or swimming pool supply store.

We usually get a bag or 2 of Aqua Quartz® 50lbs Pool Filter Sand (61308) (http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11683357&cp=2568443.2568445.2598564.2598616.3719925.1260313 ) at Ace Hardware whenever it goes on sale for $9.99 (regularly $12.99).

[Meilidiscus]

Ok, it's good to know that it's available at the hardware store. Thanks for your very helpful info.

[Tazalanche]

No problem. Happy to help out. :thumbsup: