Originally Posted by
zergling
You can think of it as "your" tank as much as you want, but as you said, it's in a prominent place in the house. Unless you're in charge of interior design AND keeping the area spic and span, this prominent place in the house is your wife's territory. Your tank stands there at that spot only because she is being a supportive wife by allowing you an opportunity to showcase your passion to friends, family and other guests.
You have big, beautiful and healthy discus, so you know guests WILL notice the fish and will check out the tank.
- What's the next thing people will look at after noticing your discus? Your tank is so nice and clean! All viewing panels need to be algae free. Water must be crystal clear (but that's pretty much a given with all our water changes LOL)
- Next up would be the substrate. I know many in this forum will disagree with me, but bare bottom is simply just NOT display worthy. At best it will look boring. At worst, your discus will decide to poop when your guests are around, giving a nice stark contrast to the white bottom...
- I will echo Al here and really recommend you put in a thin layer of sand, half an inch deep or less. You can be aggressive with vacuuming it and just put in new sand if needed.
- Driftwood is nice and can dramatically change the look of a tank, but you already know this - you already have the nice pieces you're planning to use.
- Plants. Definitely optional, but something you can experiment with if you get driftwood - just tie some java ferns or anubias or moss on the driftwood. In one of your videos, I remember seeing you having a lighting fixture hanging from the ceiling - if you ever decide to have plants, this will make your life soooo much easier because you can always raise lights up to reduce intensity. (My tank has almost the same dimensions as yours, and I have 2x54W T5HO hanging 18" above the tank. Yes, you read that right - my light fixture is a foot and a half above my tank, and it's almost 3ft from the light to my substrate haha!)
TL;DR - it's a display tank where guests will see. Tank needs to be always clean and pretty so the wife can always proudly show to guests. Happy wife = happy life. Wife raising eyebrow/s or rolling eyes = bad for hobby.