Talk me out of removing sand

[regal]

Hate to do it but I am about to remove the sand in my planted tank. I have had the tank a while; heavily planted with a flourite/silica sand substrates tertras loaches, ottos, and shrimp. Bought a few discus last month. Put the 2 big ones (4") in the planted tank. They just dont seem to get as much food. Watching the other smaller discus I have in a BB you can see that a discus eating habits call for a bare bottom. They blow food around the glass bottom and suck it up, they don't have this opportunity with sand. Has anyone found a method to feed them in a substrate tank where they get enough to eat without fouling the bottom?

[ChloroPhil]

They're going to do that. I'd take the sand out and stick with pure Flourite. Just make sure they have a clearish spot to play with their food. With the shrimp and loaches you shouldn't have to worry about uneaten food. Just don't feed sinking pellets for your bottom feeders and they'll eat any leftovers readily.

[Ralph]

I use mostly live blackworms (though I know that not everyone has access to them, or they are too expensive). I feed them to my fish about three times a day, and I do it slowly so that nothing hits the bottom of the tank. Some people use the worm feeding cone too which works just as well. I think the live foods trigger discus appetites.
Red wigglers also get eaten. Frozen bloodworms don't have a chance to sink to the substate.

[dm]

Mine just blow the worms off the sand and eat them. They seem to have no problems at all dealing with the sand. For me it is working really well.

[keno]

Hi Dm, can u tell me about your sand? I have a 120g bare bottom growouyt tank that I will be turning into a show tank soon and am looking for advice on a san substrate.

I have a 225 also that has gravel but I want sand in my other one.

Thanks Ken

[dm]

Hi keno, I think sand is a much better choice. All the crap seems to stay on top instead of going down into the gravel. I bought the sand at a lfs (Ralph-PHX Tropicals. It is a fine light colored sand. I have a couple small peppered Cories keeping it clean and they do a good job, always poking around in it looking for scraps. When I clean the tank I just wave the siphon over the sand stirring up the dirt without stirring up any more sand than I have to. The only thing I don't like about it is it is harder to keep the plants down in sand than it is in gravel. You will have to have it deeper. hth

[Willie]

I was able to buy silica sand from Home Depot, $4 for a 50 lb bag. 2 bags filled a 75 gal tank.

Willie

[regal]

This is home depot sand too, the more I have watched the sand isn't as bad, but the water sprite I have it keeps sheding dead plant material. I hate to remove it because it keeps my nitrate low.

[dm]

I'm sure the Home Depot sand would be much cheaper. I paid a lot for mine.

[keno]

Great thanks guys!

Ken

[Debbie]

The dead plant material isn't going to affect your discus unless you allow it to accumulate. How often do you do water changes and how much water? The benefit of the plants far out weighs the risk of any disolved organics. The water discus are native to has disolved organics in it. While it isn't good to let the disolved organics to build up, there is no problem if you do regular water changes and remove the bulk of the dead plant leaves.

[Ralph]

Absolutely, whatever it is that builds up in the closed confines of the tank and requires you to do water changes comes from the fish themselves and not from the plants.