No Gravel

[robertherrington]

Just wondering what would the downside of having no gravel in a tank be??? I mean all the fish waste would be much easier to suck up with the gravel vac, and the filter would probably get a lot more.

 

[WILDER]

The only down side is that tanks don't look to nice with no substrate.

 

[robertherrington]

I Think I Might Try Looking For Some Type Of Substrate Material Such As A Mat Of Some Type Or Something Other Which Would Be Much Easier To Clean, And Still Make The Aquarium Look Nice. Any Suggestions

 

[fishlette]

I Think I Might Try Looking For Some Type Of Substrate Material Such As A Mat Of Some Type Or Something Other Which Would Be Much Easier To Clean, And Still Make The Aquarium Look Nice. Any Suggestions

good luck with the mat idea! personally cant think of how you could do it but there could be something.

even though bare bottoms are easy to clean, as wilder said they dont look as nice without substrate. also IME it looks dirtier quicker when there is nothing on the bottom. also, depending on whether or not you have bottom dwellers, that could make it bad. bottom dwellers would be most disappointed to find nothing for them to dig and play in. just a thought

 

[Arimus]

I've read somewhere (my mind has decided at 4am to go blank due to the indicence of blood in my coffee-stream) that astroturf (the kind which doesn't rot) can be used...

It could look nice and being a heavy mat would be as easy to vacuum as a plain base.

On the subject of no substrate, depending on what fish you go, it can heavily limit your choice of bottom dewlers - my corry's for instance love rooting arond in the sand for what ever they can find....

 

[KhaosInc]

On one tank I had ages ago that I wanted the 'look' of gravel, but not the cleaning issues, I smeaerd the entire bottom with silicone then sprinkled aquarium gravel over it (I have a thing for black gravel but thats me) left it overnight and dumped everything loose out. Left me with a black gravel bottom, taking up almost no space and easy to clean. As mentioned before, not the best for any tank you want scavengers in, but worked well for my purposes.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

also bear in mind with no substrate you've nothing to plant into so limit yourself to fake plants/ornaments/floating plants

 

[dc3]

Bare-bottom tanks are the ultimate convenience in maintenance... I can run through my daily maintenance in a snap without all that pesky gravel. The look is terrible tho - all depends what you want out of your tank and your fish... If you're trying to grow out certain fish - you will save yourself a lot of headache this way - but some fish pretty much demand a substrate.