Best Substrate for Discus?

[Alistriwen]

I'm in the midst of getting my 90gal ready for my first Discus which I've been waiting months and months for and I want to make sure it's something both the Discus and myself will enjoy. With that in mind I want to get a substrate that will both meet their particular needs and also display their amazing colours and patterns to the fullest. What would the experts reccomend ? I will probably be going for a red pink or orange variant although it is hard to know where my eyes will wander when I go to the Discus store lol.

[digthemlows]

fine white sand is the best in my opinion

[RyanH]

For growing juveniles, the best substrate is a glass bottom. For adults, a thin layer of white sand looks nice and is easy to keep clean.

[Apistomaster]

I use a thin layer of sand in all my tanks. Less than 1/4 inch does not make cleaning anymore difficult than bare bottom tanks and even young discus like to hunt for food in the sand.
Few of my discus grow out tanks only have discus in them. I raise fancy pleco fry along with juvenile discus. I have found that each does well sharing a tank. The little plecos clean up any food missed by the discus. I also find bare tanks too sterile and empty looking In addition to a thin layer of sand, I grow potted Sword plants and floating plant like Ceratophyllum, Tropical Hornwort or Water Sprite. I also keep a few small pieces of Malayan bog wood in each tank.

I only use two types of substrate for this thin layer. Either a fine white quartz sand or Red Sea FloraBase. It only takes about one liter of substrate to provide a very thin layer. This is especially nice with the FloraBase because it is expensive but a 12 pound bag is enough for about a dozen tanks from 29H to 40 gal breeder tanks so the cost per tank is about $2.00 each. It is what I use as my potting material too.

[spudz]

I'm a nooby here and don't know much. Everything I read says bare tank. Easy cleaning. Which is main thing for me. I'm real paranoid about keeping water clean. I live in in a terrarium and there's lots of light that produces a lot of algae . I have a uv in the tank and the water is always very clear, but I have to scrape algae every day , which makes my water very green for a while, does that do any harm to them? :bandana::confused:
Sorry I hijacked your thread

[Alistriwen]

I prefer not to keep any tanks bare bottom for the reasons listed above. I like my fish to look nice and substrate helps there. Im a pro at keeping tanks clean since I both keep 25 of my own and do maintenance for a living lol so no worries there. I just wanted to get the best for my freshwater kings!

[White Worm]

I'm a nooby here and don't know much. Everything I read says bare tank. Easy cleaning. Which is main thing for me. I'm real paranoid about keeping water clean. I live in in a terrarium and there's lots of light that produces a lot of algae . I have a uv in the tank and the water is always very clear, but I have to scrape algae every day , which makes my water very green for a while, does that do any harm to them? :bandana::confused:
Sorry I hijacked your thread

algae wont hurt your discus.


I prefer not to keep any tanks bare bottom for the reasons listed above. I like my fish to look nice and substrate helps there. Im a pro at keeping tanks clean since I both keep 25 of my own and do maintenance for a living lol so no worries there. I just wanted to get the best for my freshwater kings!
Some kind of sand would be the best. A light colored thin layer will bring out the best in them.

[aquagal]

I got 50lbs of white pool filter sand for $9 and it's my all-time favorite...it looks great and the discus look great

[Alistriwen]

Looks like white sand is the consensus, great! I was going to buy a bunch of it anyways, now Im just going to get more :).

[Hassles]

well what do they get in their natural environmet ? I'm opting for a glossostigma carpet so an iron rich substrate will need to be employed.