There are alternatives to soil and planted tanks.. One tank (155g) uses Pool Filter Sand and another tank, same size, uses Safe-T-Sorb. Soiless and awesome plant growth proliferation. Bill in Va.
Tank with STS..
The only issue I've had and read about regarding mixing Discus and Angels is that the Angels are aggressive feeders unlike the Discus. I feed very sparingly 5-6 times a day which wouldn't work if I had them mixed. Bill in Va.
I jumped back into the hobby last Feb (2010) after 25 years out. After a month or so I picked up 12 Discus Fry about 12 weeks old. After 6 weeks I sold off half for most of my investment. I was raising the 12 in a 29G bare bottom tank for the 1st six weeks. One year later, all have survived...
Finally.. a NPT discus tank comment! Sorry I've been lurking so long.. and in fact don't even belong here! Virginia Virgin here <grin>.. I'm about a month in staging my soon to be discus tank... The plants have been in almost the whole time and now I think I've miss-planted based upon plant...