wondering yalls opinion planted vs bare bottom [Archive]

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discusjoe27

12-14-2009, 09:17 AM

http://www.thefishconnection.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6161

I don't want flaming just opinions, I gave my opinion and the guy gave his.
I'm just curious what you people with planted tanks would say and then what you people with bare bottoms would say abouts debate? yes that is me and another guy.

AL/mod's if this is not aloud, just let me know and delete it.

tcyiu

12-14-2009, 05:49 PM

I don't want flaming just opinions, I gave my opinion and the guy gave his.

I read the thread. Nothing wrong with either argument. Both sides make sound points. I've raised discus in a planted tank and am raising my latest batch in a BB tank.

At the end of the day, not everyone wants to power feed juvenile discus and breed show champions. Some may only want ornamental fish tanks and pets. So I wouldn't get too heavy handed with the BB thing.

Just my opinion.

Tim

Yassmeena

12-14-2009, 06:05 PM

I read the thread. Nothing wrong with either argument. Both sides make sound points. I've raised discus in a planted tank and am raising my latest batch in a BB tank.

At the end of the day, not everyone wants to power feed juvenile discus and breed show champions. Some may only want ornamental fish tanks and pets. So I wouldn't get too heavy handed with the BB thing.

Just my opinion.

Tim

I didnt read the article, but Tim is right. It's up to you.

If you want to raise fatso discus then maybe BB would get better results.

But discus will still grow out in a planted.

My preference and method was to buy semi-adult discus for my planted and bypass the whole process. :)

HTH

Yasmin

William Palumbo

12-14-2009, 06:07 PM

I like the BB's for ease of cleaning. A very clean set-up and easy to keep that way. On the otherhand...I do get really sick of the BB look...and the painted glass! I go thru my phases where I really like one or the other...Bill

Discus-n00b

12-14-2009, 07:00 PM

BB for me. Very easy to clean and maintain. I've never once gotten sick of the BB look. I'm very simplistic, so having a tank like that is good for me. It makes me concentrate more on the fish, not the box around them. Thats what it comes down to for me, the fish.

Granted, if I had wilds I'd love a tank with some driftwood and sand.

Jhhnn

12-14-2009, 09:57 PM

The best advice for people who want a display tank is to not keep discus at all, particularly if they're beginners. I'm of the opinion that a lot of the commercial glamour shots of discus in gorgeous planted tanks are like shots of models on the beach- the models don't really live there, and neither do the discus...

The second best advice is to buy adults, keep the population density fairly low.

It all depends on what the aquarist wants. For me, part of the appeal of discus is that they're big. Others may be content with smaller fish, even fish that I might consider to be stunted, and that's OK, because they're not my fish... but I do think people need to understand how to grow them large, if that's what they want, and that's much more likely to be achieved in BB tanks, lots of water changes, etc, or by adopting the hightech methods Chad uses in his planted tanks...

And the truth is that sometimes people just get lucky with WalMart discus in planted tanks, like the one contributor in the OP's link. Doesn't mean those results are repeatable, at all...

A standard fast pitch softball has a circumference of 12", anyway, meaning the diameter is <4", kinda small for a discus... even a jumbo Chicago-style softball has a circumference of 16", still not very big for a discus, if somewhat more respectable...

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_official_size_and_weight_of_a_softball

zamboniMan

12-15-2009, 12:17 AM

For juvies I would go BB with Moss Balls (they help keep water quality and all you have to do to maintain them is to ring them out durring water changes) simply because juvies need to eat more and water quality is easier to maintain the less you feed.
For adults I would definitely go with a planted tank.

Either way if you get into planted tanks you'll catch the aquascaping bug. It can be pulled off with discus I've seen it done. It is difficult (because of the size of adult discus and the tanks they need also because of their dietary requirements) and that's why its considered the Holy Grail of planted tanks.

I attached pictures of my display tank. I'm not ammano at least, not yet ;) I moved my juvies to this tank because the power went out (adults out juvies in) and since that tank is bigger and has a substrate heater it cools slower. Now that the power is back on I'll move the discus tomorrow (once all the temps have come back up and stabilized). I didn't lose any discus but the normal grow out tanks got down to 59 degrees Fahrenheit. I'm bringing them up slowly (about 5 degrees an hour) as they now have my adult discus in them.

Merry Christmas
Josh

discusjoe27

12-16-2009, 11:33 AM

thanks, to me it just seemed like the guy was saying that anyone could go out buy some discus and throw them in a planted tank and they will grow.
we finely stopped :argue:

Tito

12-16-2009, 02:43 PM

One observation I would like to add here.
I've always kept sand in any tank that I have had and now I keep my Discus in BB.

What I've noticed is that in BB tanks the waste lies all over the bottom till you vacuum.

In sand substrates this those not happen. I believe that the Mulm (biological fauna) in the sand begins to break down the waste. This option is not available in BB.

I can tell you that most of my sandscaped tanks have always been clean. Except for Tropheus which live in colonies and poop a lot. But almost anything else I've kept the sand was always clean.

zamboniMan

12-16-2009, 10:36 PM