New Discus owner

[curryb15]

Hello everyone I just got 2 discus from a local fish store in quarintine right now. They will be going into a 150 gallon tall tank. The tank is a community tank with a river rock substrate. My question is if I remove my substrate so that the tank is easier to maintain , will the reflection off the bottom of the tank be a problem for the discus? I am currently running a tek t5-HO light fixture ( it was used for my salt water tank) with only 2 bulbs running.

[Trier20]

when you take out the substrate you can either paint the underside of the glass or put some sort of background under it if you're worried about it. Dark colors will tend to make the discus darker. 2-T5 HO bulbs is fine.

[curryb15]

Thought about that but painting the underside is not really an option..... maybe ill leave a very thin layer at the bottom so its easy to vacuum but dosnt reflect? the tank has 4 angels, 8 bleeding heart tetras, 2 guarmis, a school of neon tetras, a german blue ram, 4 guppies and im hoping 5 discus as a center piece fish

[ashtricks]

Hello everyone I just got 2 discus from a local fish store in quarintine right now. They will be going into a 150 gallon tall tank. The tank is a community tank with a river rock substrate. My question is if I remove my substrate so that the tank is easier to maintain , will the reflection off the bottom of the tank be a problem for the discus? I am currently running a tek t5-HO light fixture ( it was used for my salt water tank) with only 2 bulbs running.

The bottom surface appears to be reflective when viewed from the outside. From the inside, the fish will see like any other glass we see. There will only be a slight reflection like we see in windows. That does not bother the fish.
My stand has a black top so I put a white towel under the tank to avoid darkening of my fish.

[curryb15]

Thank you for the input..... Just trying to get the tank set up perfectly as i do not have room for a grow out tank

[a volar]

As Ashish mention, there is not a big reflection there, just look at the bottom of bare bottom tank from the top and you won't see any reflection.