This hobby is so easy if people would just make water changes...
Say what you want about a BB being ugly...
I cannot be convinced that a tank with substrate could possibly be as clean. I vacuum mine out every day. Sometimes twice. Hey, I'm retired with nothing else to do! I get tons of discus turds and I get most every one. I just don't see that happening with a substrate or planted tank.
My discus are growing at a fast rate that I never expected. I believe a big reason is I am getting a lot of the hormones out of the water and also the detritus out daily.
This hobby is so easy if people would just make water changes...
At my age, everything is irritating.
Too easy.
1. bare tank
2. add water
3. filtration
4. heat to 82 or 26.7
5. buy fish from forum sponsor
6. add fish to water
7. feed fish with Al's freeze dry black worms.
8. change water in some amount every week.
9. enjoy fish and stay updated at Simply Discus forum.
Options might be:
1. buy test kits so you know what your water is doing.
2. try different kinds of food for feed variety.
3. put flower pot or cone in case someone wants to spawn.