How to and concerns about going bare bottom

[seguragr]

Now get your minds out of the gutter.

I have a 55gal. planted tank and I have decided to heed the advice on this forum and to convert to a bare bottom tank.

The main thing I want to know is, can I do this all at once or should I do it slowly over time. My canister filter houses a large amount of ceramic rings that should constitute the majority of my bio filter, but I know that bacteria grows on all aquarium surfaces as well.

As far as decorating the tank, what does everyone else do? I still want to be able to provide hiding places and other things that will keep my discus stress level down, but the only thing that would survive this operation would be my driftwood. I dont want to have a tank with just a few chunks of driftwood in it. Do you use fake plants still? If so, how since there is nothing to hold them down?

[KEWX]

Why did you decide to go without plants and clear out you substrate? You could always transfer plants to a flower plate, plate, or bowl.

[seguragr]

It's because the heat in my tank is killing most of them anyway. And I want to get rid of substrate because it seems to be the smartest and easiest way to raise discus. I am also planning to go to a species only tank. Essentially I want to do whatever I can to reduce stress and make maintenance easier on me.

I just dont want to end up with nothing but water and wood.

[KEWX]

Good luck!

[discolicious]

There are ways.. you can set small pots of gravel in the tank, about 2/3 full, with fake plants anchored in the gravel. You can also put real potted plants if you get some that tolerate the water conditions. If you don't mind replacing plants, you can use lucky bamboo or spaphillium which last a surprisingly long time underwater.

[Sean Buehrle]

Just run your filters in a bucket and empty the tank. Clean it realwelland fill with water. Hook up your good filters and your done.

The bad thing about what your doing is the possibility of disease coming from previous fish.
If you can afford it i would sell your old filters and buy a new one.

Anytime you can start new you should.

[Cevoe]

I have cleared the substrate from tanks more than once and it was always done at one time with the fish in the tank.
You can also put them in a bucket or house them in another tank if you have one.
The easiest way I found to do it was to just scoop it all out with a net. It goes quicker than you would think.
Make sure your filters are off until you get all the sand or gravel out so you do not get anything in the impeller housing.
They have plenty of artificial plants available that actually look pretty good and that have the bases weighted.
I have tried quite a bit of that stuff but have been back to nothing but filters, cones and fish in the tanks for a while now.
Good luck.

[Bud Smith]

Now get your minds out of the gutter.

I have a 55gal. planted tank and I have decided to heed the advice on this forum and to convert to a bare bottom tank.

The main thing I want to know is, can I do this all at once or should I do it slowly over time. My canister filter houses a large amount of ceramic rings that should constitute the majority of my bio filter, but I know that bacteria grows on all aquarium surfaces as well.

As far as decorating the tank, what does everyone else do? I still want to be able to provide hiding places and other things that will keep my discus stress level down, but the only thing that would survive this operation would be my driftwood. I dont want to have a tank with just a few chunks of driftwood in it. Do you use fake plants still? If so, how since there is nothing to hold them down?

decorating the tank - I have a bare bottom tank and here are some ideas - I use large pieces of driftwood accented with plants in clay pots with stone (easy to clean) - I also have small wieghted base plants that are put around and through the driftwood - for me my discus are the stars of the show and the plants are their for support

[Sean Buehrle]

Nothing to brag about but heres a pic of my tank and just some of the stuff i threw in there to break up the barren wasteland look. You are unlimited with a bb tank. A nice colored bulb helps alot. Dont laugh at my plasyic plants either, i got em for 25 cents at a garage sale, im not paying 14 bucks for a piece of plastic. LOLhttp://tapatalk.com/mu/4bada593-86b1-a3da.jpg. http://tapatalk.com/mu/4bada593-86d7-a487.jpg. http://tapatalk.com/mu/4bada593-8704-c6d0.jpg

[jimg]

I use anubias tied to driftwood, their roots run down the wood and look nice. no need for bright light or ferts. a mix of a couple hunks of drift wood and some manzanita branches look real nice.

[mrblah00]

I use anubias tied to driftwood, their roots run down the wood and look nice. no need for bright light or ferts. a mix of a couple hunks of drift wood and some manzanita branches look real nice.

+1

Anubias will take the heat and the fish love the manzanita. I just cleaned out a 135 gallon planted tank yesterday turning it to bare bottom....what a mess! I need the tank space though!
Sam

[seguragr]

Thanks for all the responses. Sean I actually like the look of your tank. I didn't think I would being that bare but it has a nice quality about it.

I guess I will take the plunge and get all this nasty gravel out soon. I'm glad to know it won't cause problems.

I'll have to figure out how to keep my tank divider in place without substrate now.

[ExReefer]

I’ve siphoned the water and substrate out with a larger diameter hose after first removing my discus. This gets the nasty stuff stuck in your substrate out at the same time. Turn off your filters during this process. Filters will be fine if you get them back on in 60-90 mins. Make sure that altogether you change nearly 100% of the water and wipe down all the glass.

Décor – this is a funny topic with me when it comes to raising discus. I (now) believe that growing out discus and décor don’t mix. Décor is for the hobbyist, not the discus. If your truly into the grow out phase of this hobby, then I wouldn’t even think about décor. Discus kept in large groups don’t need décor, but I would make sure you paint the bottom glass. I struggled for many months with this concept. I went from a planted discus tank, to just rocks and substrate, to driftwood and substrate, to BB and driftwood, and finally to just BB. For me, the best growth and health came from plain old BB tanks and it made the hobby easier. In the end, I couldn’t live with the BB look and went with adult discus, sand, and some décor. If I ever get back into growing out discus, I will go 100% BB with sponge filters. It’s just simple that way.

It all depends on how hard core you are with growing out discus.

[Sean Buehrle]

I'll have to figure out how to keep my tank divider in place without substrate now.
Suction cups work well.

[seguragr]

Thanks for the replies. I tried suction cups and that worked well to keep the divider in place.


So hardcore BB tanks are really just empty tanks with filter equipment in them? I don't know if I like that idea; especially now when I only have two discus that are constantly trying to kill each other.

Is there any significant disadvantage to using a light sand bed instead of painting the bottom of the tank? I don't think I can take the whole thing down, paint it, wait for it to cure, then put it back.

[strawberryblonde]

Sand works well if the fish you are going to purchase are 3" or larger. You'll still have to be a stickler for water changes and vacuuming the sand to get all the crud off of it, but it does work. If your discus are going to be smaller than 3", it's just plain easier to go bare bottom.

If you decide to go the bare bottom route, you won't have to wait for the paint to dry for very long. I used a flat interior paint for the back of my tank and it was dry to the touch and ready to go in about an hour. You could always put your bickering discus into two separate buckets while you're doing the tear down and painting.

To keep the tank looking interesting, try adding gnarled pieces of driftwood that can easily be lifted out for cleaning, along with what I call "squishy pots" for a couple of nice sword plants. The pots are just the foot end of a pair of pantyhose. Fill it with gravel, add a root tab, stuff in the sword plant, tie the top securely around the base of the plant and then squish it into a flat, slightly rounded on top, shape and plop it into your tank.

The squishy pots don't tip over, don't spill the gravel everywhere and are simple to lift out or move around when you need to clean under them. You can disguise the pots by putting small pieces of driftwood in front and on the sides of them.

My discus love the sword plants...they're nice places to hide when they want a rest from all the excitement of the big bossy discus in the tank.