Redoing my tank

[fishbubbles]

Was planning to paint the bottom sand texture.. question if I decide to add sand later is is purchase pre cleaned so I can pour it in later.

Just to be clear, you're going to paint the bottom of the glass not the top portion?

[Lewjo11]

Always rinse it really well

thanks for all your replys. One question. I always thought gravel was important for the helpful bacteria and overall cycle of the tank? Bare bottom won't everything just look dirty .

[Ryan925]

thanks for all your replys. One question. I always thought gravel was important for the helpful bacteria and overall cycle of the tank? Bare bottom won't everything just look dirty .

Gravel does contain some BB but the bulk is in your bio media. You can have a mini cycle after removing the gravel so levels should be monitored

BB may look dirty between wcs but the point is you can see and remove every bit of debris in the tank

[Filip]

BB is not an aesthetically pleasing like sand or gravel bottom , but it is much cleaner and friendlier environment for discus , have no doubt about that Lewjo.
No professional discus breeder /seller ever uses any sand or gravel in any of his breeding , growing or keeping discus tanks .
Commercial display tanks and wildcaught discus tanks are exception.

[Kyla]

U can see all the droppings on the bottom of the tank between water changes. At first I felt this looked "dirty." After a while I realized just how much filth accumulated on a daily basis in the substrate because now I could easily SEE it sitting there, instead of hidden in the gravel. This made the bb tank look cleaner to my eye even between wc simply because I KNEW it was cleaner and I knew how much cleaner the whole tank was after I siphoned off the droppings etc

[Onewolf]

Discus Noob here.... I'm starting to put together a 40 gal breeder tank as a Discus grow tank. It will be BB but I didn't want a totally clear bottom so I spray painted the (outside) bottom with textured 'stone' paint. I think it will look pretty good.

painted_bottom.jpg

painted_bottom2.jpg