Changing to bare bottom tank

[walt]

Hello all I'm one year into my first discus tank. I have 120 gallon tank, I started with 10 3 inch stendker discus. It's planted with peace river gravel its finer than normal size gravel. Naturally I didn't listen to advice and only did 30% wc every 3 days. 5 of the discus got stunted and 5 have grown to 6 inches. I'm going to sell the 5 stunted discus and replace with 5 5 inch new discus. My wc regimen is now 50% 5 times a week with gravel vac at every wc. My question is would going bare bottom or thin layer of sand help discus growth or being that five have reached 6 " and my five new discus will be 5" would I still get good growth being they are young adults and leave tank planted. Thanks Walt

[discuspaul]

Walt, going bare bottom would definitely improve your water quality & conditions, which along with the increased wc regimen, should significantly help to achieve continued growth by your intended group of 10 - 5"- 6" fish.
Your existing plants should either be removed, or a few of them placed into pots to allow for the tank bottom vacuuming that you should be doing with the wcs.

[John_Nicholson]

Walt everyone has to learn and we have all been there. Anything you do to increase the water quality will have a positive affect on your discus.

-john

[walt]

Thanks for reply should I remove discus when removing gravel its pretty clean gravel vac 5 times a week just don't want stirring up gravel to have any bad effect on fish. Thanks walt

[Keith Perkins]

I definitely would remove them Walt. 5 gallon buckets for the few hours it should take to remove your substrate won't be any big deal. Small heaters in the buckets if you've got them, otherwise as long as the discus are currently healthy even just air will do.

[bluelagoon]

You might also want to cull the runts and not sell to someone else.It wouldn't be fair to the receiver;just saying.

[Filip]

100% fresh and new water with the substrate removal would be safest bet IMO. With All fish out.

[rickztahone]

I definitely would remove them Walt. 5 gallon buckets for the few hours it should take to remove your substrate won't be any big deal. Small heaters in the buckets if you've got them, otherwise as long as the discus are currently healthy even just air will do.


100% fresh and new water with the substrate removal would be safest bet IMO. With All fish out.

Agreed.

[walt]

If I sell the stunted discus I would let buyer know they are 4.5 to 5 inches. Also would half to one inch layer of pool sand be OK

[Akili]

If I sell the stunted discus I would let buyer know they are 4.5 to 5 inches. Also would half to one inch layer of pool sand be OK

Any amount of sand needs vacuuming does not matter what size Discus you have and it becomes a little more work if you have juveniles

[MendoMan]

I made a simple siphon out of 3/4" plastic water pipe with a 3/4" barbed hose fitting and a length of 3/4" hose. Pulled all the gravel out easily with no cloudy ness at all. I left my fish in while doing it and it didn't harm them at all. When I first started I had a 90 degree elbow on top but it was clogging so I replaced it with a 45 and it no longer clogged.