Yes, I am getting 10 about 1-2 inches. Star_rider, I will definately keep that in mind. Thanks.
I am growing out 5 in a 30 gallon (I'm going to have to drop my pop. to 2 very soon :mad2: ), and I have very little gravel in the tank. I'm talking form experience, growing fish from 1-2 inches to now 5-6+, and just to let you know, they need lots of food and lots of clean water. I think 10 in a 55 would be okay for a bit, but you definitely would want to upgrade your tank size or move out half your population after a few months.
Discus grow pretty fast. I've seen full grown 7-9 inch discus that people have claimed grew in about 9-12 months. For growth like that, you need to feed a lot. A schedule of 3 feeding/day is optimum. And by the way, discus are like goldfish, they can eat a lot, they poo just as much. Because of this, cleaning after feedings is recommended. A pwc schedule of 50% 2-3x a week is optimum. Some say less, but I've been pretty religious about 50% 3x a week. This keeps the water clean.
Now the problems come in when you have stuff on the bottom. If you like to take your time meticulously cleaning the gravel, and decorations, have fun. You might be looking at some pretty long water changes to clean everything. If you don't clean everything, of course, the water quality suffers. Mostly breeders keep a bare bottom tank for ease of cleaning. Any detrius that falls to the bottom of the tank is easy to see, and easy to clean. Same thing for decoration, no need to bother cleaning around them. Clean tanks ensure clean water, = happy discus.
I'm not sure how much time and effort you are going to put into this, but having a sand bottom would definitely increase the effort you will need to raise discus. I don't know about the other issues, like compaction, irritated gills, or plants, but this is my 2 cents on your issue.
