Substrate

[Cjbear087]

Hi, I would like to start a discus planted tank and am struggling with my substrate choices. I was thinking on bottom layer, some dirt / stratum in a mesh bag, and on top cover with fine sand, but honestly I have no idea. Could someone please give me some ideas and how much of each thing I would need? Tank is 90gal with dimensions of 121x51cm. Thanks

[Lennie]

Hello Cj,

I have a friendly suggestion.

I can see your excitement about your new tank. However, your last 8 topics are all connected to same tank, stocking, substrate and filtration and the water you wanna use there. In fact, you just created a substrate topic yesterday for the same tank. It might be a better idea to keep everything covered and progressed further under one topic. This way, it is avoided to have so many newly created topics, and people may help you better regarding your questions, as everyone will be aware of the past discussions/suggestions and the current situation of the tank as well as having opinion of the tank overall. Because, for example, you already has some feedback and suggestions about substrate yesterday, but anyone who didn't come across that topic may go for repetitive suggestions and stuff.

You cannot combine them all together, but if they make sense to be combined for our mod team as well, then @Guppysnail may help when she has time I believe.

Again, just a suggestion from me,

Cheers

 

Edited April 6 by Lennie

[Cjbear087]

On 4/7/2024 at 12:10 AM, Lennie said:

Hello Cj,

I have a friendly suggestion.

I can see your excitement about your new tank. However, your last 6 topics are all connected to same tank, stocking, substrate and filtration. In fact, you just created a substrate topic yesterday for the same tank. It might be a better idea to keep everything covered and progressed further under one topic. This way, it is avoided to have so many newly created topics, and people may help you better regarding your questions, as everyone will be aware of the past discussions/suggestions and the current situation of the tank as well as having opinion of the tank overall. Because, for example, you already has some feedback and suggestions about substrate yesterday, but anyone who didn't come across that topic may go for repetitive suggestions and stuff.

You cannot combine them all together, but if they make sense to be combined for our mod team as well, then @Guppysnail may help when she has time I believe.

Again, just a suggestion from me,

Cheers

 

I do apologise I have been making so many topics on so many different forums I’ve been forgetting what I’ve already done! Thanks for letting me know

[Lennie]

Nothing to apologise mate. I just wanted to mention it

per your question;

I barely see any people succeeding such tank style for discus in the long term. Including myself. They are finicky fish. And they are nothing like any other fish Ive kept so far. And believe me, I had and have a lot of species. You will see some people reaching success by treating them like a regular fish, like Fish folk’s discus tank here. But it is a very rare occasion in general. It failed too hard on me to keep them this way, and I am a long time fishkeeper. I think I see more of problematic discus help pictures rather than sharing a nice tank in forums and  fish groups.

 

I highly recommend checking simplydiscus and see how people reach success. If you really want discus related advice, get the advice from experienced discus keepers of tens of years in a discus dedicated forum. It is not a fish that people who never kept discus can really help about them based on their normal experience. But we do have a few members here that keeps them

In addition to that, I would recommend not keeping discus at all. Especially if you are fairly new to the hibby or if your experience is very limited in general. Keeping discus was personally one of the worst fishkeeping decisions for me, and turned the hobby into a labor and stress instead. That’s my experience. 
 

You can find plenty of fish to keep in such tank size. Discus are very limiting by the temp requirement, tank requirements, decors, objects, tankmates, etc. Also requires pristine tank conditions lots of water changes and maintenance and so on. And many are used to be fed heavily on a carnivore diet and beefheart, which is nothing like their natural diet. Making them accept dry food and adding algae to their diet can be PAIN. If you wanna buy discus, make sure they eat normal dry food and is not on a heavily frozencarnivore diet and sometimes even only beefheart

You can create a much more fun and wayyy less needy tank by your choice of plants and substrate(many plants wont be happy in discus temps, and you cant really aquascape with discus if thats what you wany) by going for some other fish. Easy example, I enjoy my community tank with angelfish WAAAY MORE than I enjoyed my discus tank in the past.

Edited April 7 by Lennie

[Cjbear087]

On 4/7/2024 at 7:32 AM, Lennie said:

Nothing to apologise mate. I just wanted to mention it

per your question;

I barely see any people succeeding such tank style for discus in the long term. Including myself. They are finicky fish. And they are nothing like any other fish Ive kept so far. And believe me, I had and have a lot of species. You will see some people reaching success by treating them like a regular fish, like Fish folk’s discus tank here. But it is a very rare occasion in general. It failed too hard on me to keep them this way, and I am a long time fishkeeper. I think I see more of problematic discus help pictures rather than sharing a nice tank in forums and  fish groups.

 

I highly recommend checking simplydiscus and see how people reach success. If you really want discus related advice, get the advice from experienced discus keepers of tens of years in a discus dedicated forum. It is not a fish that people who never kept discus can really help about them based on their normal experience. But we do have a few members here that keeps them

In addition to that, I would recommend not keeping discus at all. Especially if you are fairly new to the hibby or if your experience is very limited in general. Keeping discus was personally one of the worst fishkeeping decisions for me, and turned the hobby into a labor and stress instead. That’s my experience. 
 

You can find plenty of fish to keep in such tank size. Discus are very limiting by the temp requirement, tank requirements, decors, objects, tankmates, etc. Also requires pristine tank conditions lots of water changes and maintenance and so on. And many are used to be fed heavily on a carnivore diet and beefheart, which is nothing like their natural diet. Making them accept dry food and adding algae to their diet can be PAIN. If you wanna buy discus, make sure they eat normal dry food and is not on a heavily frozencarnivore diet and sometimes even only beefheart

You can create a much more fun and wayyy less needy tank by your choice of plants and substrate(many plants wont be happy in discus temps, and you cant really aquascape with discus if thats what you wany) by going for some other fish. Easy example, I enjoy my community tank with angelfish WAAAY MORE than I enjoyed my discus tank in the past.

Yeah, that is a fair point. Do I even need aquasoil or dirt for a low tech planted? Been doing some more reasearch and have been told sand is fine but I am worried it will effect plant growth.