questions

[hardcorexpato]

hey guys my name is guss, and i'm new here!

anyway, i have some questions, i have a 55g tank with 6 discus and 20 rummy nose, 10 cardinals, 4 cory's and an oto.
my tank has black substrate and i wouldn't say it's "planted" but i have 2 swords and an anubias. well basically, my discus are somewhat dark and i have been told this might be because the substrate is black. I am hoping to grow beautiful plants in this tank so my question to you guys is what substrate should i switch to grow beautiful plants? is regular white pool filter sand okay? i want my discus to not be peppered or dark looking.

[hardcorexpato]

76052

[Poco]

Welcome to SD!

How long did you have them? black substrate will cause peppering in pigeon blood.

Your fish could be dark due to stress or illness etc.

Are they all eating and swimming well, not hiding?

[camuth8]

It doesn't really matter what type or color of sand you use to grow your plants. A black sand will make the colors on your discus and your plants stand out. It will make our pigeon blood pepper though. So if you don't want your pigeon blood to pepper, you can move to the white sand.

[hardcorexpato]

Welcome to SD!

How long did you have them? black substrate will cause peppering in pigeon blood.

Your fish could be dark due to stress or illness etc.

Are they all eating and swimming well, not hiding?
thanks!
i have had the discus for about a month now.
i've already treated the discus with furlan2 and yeah they eat fine, which is why I'm assuming it's the substrate

[hardcorexpato]

It doesn't really matter what type or color of sand you use to grow your plants. A black sand will make the colors on your discus and your plants stand out. It will make our pigeon blood pepper though. So if you don't want your pigeon blood to pepper, you can move to the white sand.
I'm trying to grow plants out, do you think i should maybe try a dirt of some kind?

[hardcorexpato]

i've heard pool filter sand is good and cheap, any thoughts?

[hardcorexpato]

thanks again for replying, I'm really stressed out with all of this ha

[Eddie]

hey guys my name is guss, and i'm new here!

anyway, i have some questions, i have a 55g tank with 6 discus and 20 rummy nose, 10 cardinals, 4 cory's and an oto.
my tank has black substrate and i wouldn't say it's "planted" but i have 2 swords and an anubias. well basically, my discus are somewhat dark and i have been told this might be because the substrate is black. I am hoping to grow beautiful plants in this tank so my question to you guys is what substrate should i switch to grow beautiful plants? is regular white pool filter sand okay? i want my discus to not be peppered or dark looking.

Welcome Guss! It is your substrate. You can keep your plants potted and have a bare bottom tank with the bottom painted with a light color.

[hardcorexpato]

Welcome Guss! It is your substrate. You can keep your plants potted and have a bare bottom tank with the bottom painted with a light color.
thanks so much eddie! if i wanted to add a substrate, what do you think would be best?

[Orange Crush]

I used to use black flourite in terra cotta pots, the java fern and anubias were attatched to manzanita wood and I had white pool filter sand as substrate. Works well unless you knock over one of the pots and black flourite gets mixed into the white sand.
I recently moved and used the oppurtunity to remove the sand and flourite from the bottom of the tank to keep it bare (with the exception of the flourite that spills out of the pots I keep knocking over - doh!).
I loved the look of the sand and with a thin layer it is easy to vacuum but once the flourite was mixed in, it looked like sh!t; literally.

[Eddie]

thanks so much eddie! if i wanted to add a substrate, what do you think would be best?

Thats a tough call. Sand is probably the best looking substrate for a discus tank but trying to have plants can be tricky. You'll have to be creative and also try to use some plants that don't need substrate.

[Elliots]

I have pool filter sand in my tank. I did not get a great price on the sand, I paid $12 for fifty pounds. I bought 150 lbs. The plants are doing great! I use root fertilizer tabs and I fertilize the water column with Flourish from Seachem. I have a 60" long tank that is 26" tall with eight 24" T5 bulbs 24 watts each. four bulbs are colormax to enhance the fish and plant colors. Two bulbs are T5 HD and two are regular T5. Two of the non-colormax are "6700" and two are "10000" I do not remember which is which.

[hardcorexpato]

thanks for your responses! what i'm probably going to end up doing is switching to play sand, i have root tabs and gonna put those to use. thanks again guys, got myself another weekend activity haha. hopefully my fish start to lighten up..

[hardcorexpato]

is carbon really bad for discus?

[Baygon]

is carbon really bad for discus?

I have heard from many experts regarding carbon only do bads more than goods...for what I know carbon only make water cleaner and get rid of the smell but if you do WC frequently (I do 50% WC daily for my juevi) then those should not be any problem at all.

[Orange Crush]

i'm probably going to end up doing is switching to play sand
Do be careful which play sand you use. Some have anti-caking additives which is bad news for fish.


is carbon really bad for discus?
As for the carbon, one theory is that carbon contributes to HITH disease. I think the jury is still out on saying for 100% certainty if C is related but from personal experience, I will never use C again. I have had gouramis for many many years and they often got HITH but once I read about C being a potential issue, I stopped using it. Since then not one of my gouramis have had HITH. Either way, there is no need for carbon if you are doing enough water changes to make the discus happy. Keep some around though if you ever need to medicate a tank. You can use the carbon after treatment is done to remove any meds from the tank.

[hardcorexpato]

Do be careful which play sand you use. Some have anti-caking additives which is bad news for fish.

As for the carbon, one theory is that carbon contributes to HITH disease. I think the jury is still out on saying for 100% certainty if C is related but from personal experience, I will never use C again. I have had gouramis for many many years and they often got HITH but once I read about C being a potential issue, I stopped using it. Since then not one of my gouramis have had HITH. Either way, there is no need for carbon if you are doing enough water changes to make the discus happy. Keep some around though if you ever need to medicate a tank. You can use the carbon after treatment is done to remove any meds from the tank.
what should i use instead of carbon?

is the regular pool filter sand from the pool store okay? haha, i should probably ask them.

[hardcorexpato]

I have heard from many experts regarding carbon only do bads more than goods...for what I know carbon only make water cleaner and get rid of the smell but if you do WC frequently (I do 50% WC daily for my juevi) then those should not be any problem at all.

do you use fine filter pad? or just WC?

[Orange Crush]

what should i use instead of carbon?
Depending on the filter and which tank it is in, I either use a foam inserts or a combo of foam inserts and biomax media.

[hardcorexpato]

Depending on the filter and which tank it is in, I either use a foam inserts or a combo of foam inserts and biomax media.

i have a rena xp2 and an ac 50
both on a 55,
probably will just do the foam inserts

[Herbicidal]

Regarding a sand substrate, check at your local landscape supply store. Mine had more "sizes" of sand than I could shake a stick at! All kept in mason jars in the main office. Some were too fine and others too coarse. Finally settled on one that came from Monterey, CA. I'd probably stay away from the big box store home improvement places for sand. More variety elsewhere and typically good prices too.

BTW, my pool supply store had pool filter sand, but it was too gray for my tastes. Wanted a more realistic color and not bright white either.

[hardcorexpato]

ah i got you! i'll probably check the pool filter place and see how it goes from there

[hardcorexpato]

a quick update, for any interested parties,

i took out all the black sand from my tank, took me like 2 hours. and now the tank is bare, with driftwood and some plants floating around. discus are starting to lighten up and aren't aggressive anymore (cool ,eh) so tomorrow i will go snag some pool filter sand!

[hardcorexpato]

76071