Bare bottom vs sand

[Discus323]

Does it really make a difference besides easier clean up?

[rickztahone]

For wild discus it seems to soothe them more.

[MadMatt]

Bare bottom!... All the way!!!
Everyone of my tanks are BB, super easy to clean and wipe down.
With how clean a Discus tank actually has to be BB is the only way to go IMO.

[Larry Bugg]

It makes a huge difference with young discus that you are growing out but with adults it doesn't make that much difference at all. Personal preference.

[DISCUS STU]

It makes a huge difference with young discus that you are growing out but with adults it doesn't make that much difference at all. Personal preference.

I heartily agree, lol. When I've grown fish out in any type of non BB tank there have always been disease issues, mostly bacterial. Older fish not so much but we're talking about sand, definitely not gravel.

[jmf3460]

I have sand in my tank with my wild discus. I agree that it soothes them. When my sand gets spotchy and there are bits of bare bottom showing through for whatever reason like the current, corydoras or siphoning I notice that my discus get distracted when swimming over that bare spot. I have one especially that when it gets above a bare spot he kind of gets really nervous or scared bc he swims away fast. I usually try to keep my bare spots covered but my sand is so thin that it happens…im used to it. always have a bag of sand on hand when I accidentally siphon some out I just put more in.

[Lighthouse7]

I never like to say never, but ill never go back to gravel, bb is the way to go, of course thats my preference, i painted the bottom of my tank with textured paint. - Lighthouse

[Larry Bugg]

I never like to say never, but ill never go back to gravel, bb is the way to go, of course thats my preference, i painted the bottom of my tank with textured paint. - Lighthouse

I wouldn't do gravel either. There is a big difference between gravel and sand though. Sand is fairly easy to keep clean because the leftover food and gunk stays on the surface of the sand.

[dragon1974]

Had a sand bottom, had a planted tank, and now I'm BB. Talked to some experts and they explained it like this, do you have carpet in your toilet? (no) why not? (too hard to keep clean), exactly.

But I was new to discus and I broke every rule in the beginning, got discus from LFS, got sickly discus that I tried to rescue, had juvi discus in a planted tank, didn't change enough water, fed too much, didn't clean the sand bed often enough etc.

Now I only buy from reliable sources, have a BB and I WC more than I care to admit LOL. End result is, I have some healthy looking discus that eat like pigs. Cleaning is a easier and quick with a BB, and I can see what's happening.

Don't get me wrong, I like the planted tank look, but if I have to do it over again, I would only do it with adult discus and have really low tech plants that require simple maintenance.

I'm with Larry on this one, from experience also, I would only have adults with a sand bottom and juvi discus in BB.

[Lighthouse7]

Its amazing what you can do with all kinds of different types of pots, to give it a planted look, i also use pathos plants in my tanks.- Lighthouse

[afriend]

Get a microscope sometime and examine the sand particles that have been in the tank for awhile. You might be surprised at what kind of bacteria and gunk that clings to the sand. The fish feed at the tank bottom and ingest this stuff. No way to remove this without also removing the sand. I gave up sand quite some time ago.

[MKD]

BB is easier to spot or diagnose any unsual changes. (Not fan of med, in case must use med) it's more effective.
B- better to maintain
B- beat the crap out of pocket of bad bacteria

[DonMD]

I will add that I have scratched the inside of my glass aquarium over the years when I had sand substrate. It seems that some of the sand particles get suspended in the water column and find their way between the cleaning material (pad, paper towel, whatever) and the glass, and it ends up with scratches. People would come and look at the aquarium and say, "wow, that's beautiful," and I would look and see the scratches. Arrg. No sand for me.

[Md. Shafiqual Alam]

I always prefer BB. It makes life much easier for me as well as my discuses. Super easy to clean, even no need to wipe by hand for a month. Just run 20 to 30minutes my power head pump to push all poo to another side and open the drain gate to let all dust out immediately.

if you are planning for a costly planted discus tank, u then should go for sand.

[nikond70s]

if going BB i highly recommend painting the bottom and the back and sides. but if you're going to scape it. then do sand