How much gravel...

[lizard]

I work at a fish store, and when people are starting up a new tank (and buying fish the same day), I give 'em a handful or two of gravel to help seed their biological filter. How much gravel do they need, though? I know it depends on the size of the tank and how many fish they have and stuff like that. Let's just use a 10 gallon tank as an example. Is one hanful of gravel sufficient, two, five? I also know that most of the biological filter probably isn't in the gravel, but rather in the filter media/cartridge, but I can't very well go handing out our filter cartridges

Would tossing some bio-balls/stars in our tanks, then giving a certain number of those to people be better?

Opinions, comments?

Thanks!

Pamela
aka Married Lizard

 

[Torrean]

i think plastic plants work well, but I'm not sure. I know live plants do.

 

[lizard]

i think plastic plants work well, but I'm not sure. I know live plants do.

Do you mean for "holding bacteria"?

Pamela
aka Married Lizard