Bare bottom

[luisprado]

I am about to start an 80g US tank, I still can't decide whether to go bare bottom or substrate. I am not new to the hobby but wanted to get a feel for what everybody else thinks. I would be housing a black ghost knife, 7 juvenile discus, 15 cardinal tetras, 10 rummy nose tetras and a german blue ram. Do you guys think its better bare bottom or with gravel and heavily planted or lightly planted?

THANKS!

[weird]

Unless you already have a mature planted fish tank, I would go bare bottom.

[luisprado]

I do not have a matured "planted" fish tank, but I do have a 40g fish tank with gravel in it already, with fake plants in it.

[Mattzilla]

bare bottom is MUCH easier to keep clean. discus thrive in really clean water and bb helps to achieve these conditions. how about a bare bottom tank with a piece of planted driftwood so you have the best of both worlds? still looks great and easy to clean

[Chris McMahon]

how about a bare bottom tank with a piece of planted driftwood so you have the best of both worlds? still looks great and easy to cleanI'm thinking of doing the above for my next tank too. BB and a few Anubius on wood. I'm sure there are a few pics in the photo section that are like this and look quite good.

[luisprado]

sounds great!! I will definitely see what I can do to make my bb look better.

Thanks.

[Mattzilla]

i have all bb tanks with planted driftwood... you can see some pictures of one of my tanks here that shows what i mean....

http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1302

hth
matt

[jim]

You can also plant your plants into flower pot and put it in your tank. It works for many people too..

[pyro]

With having a black ghost knife fish in the tank, I would lean towards having a few plants and hidie holes .The black ghost knife fish is a nocturnal fish and I have seen this lead to stressed out discus. Due to not being able to sleep at night while the black ghost knife fish goes looking for food.