I wanted a planted tank, so I ignored the advice I read here and threw 2.5 inch juvies into a newly planted tank. I figured daily water changes weren't really necessary and the people on this forum were just "over the top".
After a month or so, I decided to do some daily water changes due to some illness and the behavior of the fish changed dramatically. Their appetites went up and they became way more active. In the end, I spent a year plus constantly trying to keep the tank clean and food bits out of the plants and substrate. Sometimes it almost seemed like the fish were purposefully spitting little bits of food into the plants! The discus were OK as I was constantly changing water, but the plants hated it and never really grew. My nitrates never got above 10ppm, but there was a ton of organic material floating in the tank and my guys were less active and less aggressive eaters if I ever skipped one day's water change. That's the thing, I went into the whole planted tank thing thinking it would lead to "almost no work", but it wound up being a lot more work than if I had gone BB.
Now, about 16 months into the journey, I'm more comfortable with my planted tank. I only do wcs 2-3 times a week, I only feed beefheart and other messy food before wcs and I feed less food overall. I'm happy with it now that they are adults, but there's no way that I'd ever raise juvies in a planted tank again. Never again!
As for creating a natural environment, I encourage you to read more about what their habitat actually looks like. Here's one good article:
http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.u...t.php?sid=2724
I think you'll find that the typical discus planted tank with submersed plants like swords (like the tank I have) is in no way a natural environment. I like my plants, but they are definitely in the tank for me and not the fish.