Gravel Substrate For Betta Tank

celaeno · Mar 4, 2009

i've had bare bottom tanks for a long time now because they're easy to clean. but now i want to switch to a gravel substrate for my 10 gallon tank. i have 4 female bettas in there, each about 2 inches, and plan on putting in 4 1-inch otos later on.

1. what would be the advantages and disadvantages of gravel compared to bare bottom?

2. how high should the gravel bed be? would you recommend sloping it downward from the back?

3. what size should the gravel be?

4. how much gravel should i use? estes recommends 1.5 lbs/gallon.

5. i have red, blue, and peach bettas. what would be a good color to help them stand out? what color would make them feel most comfortable?

Athena · Mar 4, 2009

Black gravel is quite popular for a Betta tank to help the colours of the fish stand out. Don't go for anything too coarse in case they tear their finnage on it. A few nice, live plants, a couple of hidey holes and they should be well happy!

You can slope the gravel slightly towards the back, if you like. You don't need a lot of gravel - between 1 - 2" is enough.

Athena

celaeno · Mar 4, 2009

how hard is it to clean the fish waste and uneaten food? will the beneficial bacteria that eventually colonize on the gravel break down the waste?

how often should i vac the gravel?

would i need to take out all the ornaments every time i vac?

would the bettas or otos accidentally swallow gravel if the pebbles are too small?

Honeythorn · Mar 4, 2009

I have small grade gravel in my 12 gallon female betta tank and they can't swallow it at all ( to be fair I doubt they've tried ) they do like to hover about and pick bits out of it though.

I vac the upper layers of my gravel every week at the same time as doing the water change. Unless you have loads of ornaments you don't really need to remove them every time, but once a month you may want to take them out and do under where they usually sit .

It isn't hard to clean gravel with a syphon/vac, just push the tube down into the gravel a little, lift it up a bit and the gravel should be swirling up and down the tube. Just whoosh the tube about a bit to get any bits off and move round the tank as you go. The gravel will just drop out and the bits will be sucked up. Don't forget to keep one eye on the gravel vac andthe other eye on the level of water in your bucket!! You don't want to overflow!

To be honest you shouldn't have too much debris on the gravel with 4 bettas and a few otos. If you do get a lot of uneaten food then you may be feeding too much.

You will get a bit of a bacterial colony in the gravel, but it's pretty useless at breaking down waste as there isn't enough in the gravel to cope with that amount of fish. The main colony will be in your filter media.