Sand Or Fine Gravel?

[sparkycufc]

Would any of you knowledgable souls be able to simply explain to me (or provide a handy link) the plus and minus points of each. I have a 60 litre tank at the momenty which I am thoroughly enjoying and plan to get a 120 litre tank if I can persuade her indoors it will look nice. Currently I have fine gravel and although it is relatively easy to clean I find it hides quite a lot of detritus and general muck beneath it.

I'm tempted to go for sand in the larger tank but thought I would research the potential pitfalls first. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[anwhyte]

Hi, I have 'silver sand' in my 120l tank, I think it looks a lot better than gravel, it needs to be thoroughly cleaned (in a bucket beforehand) as does gravel. It can be cleaned using a siphon when you do your tank maintenance but some sand will probably get sucked up along with the rubbish from your tank bottom, this can be cleaned & put back in though, or ignored as there won't be much. Only downside I can think of is you need a lot of depth to plant real plants or you can buy them in plant-pots (which I use) or use fake plants.

 

[OldMan47]

My personal favorite substrate, for a conventional tank, is somewhere between a fine gravel and a coarse sand. I try to get something that defies being clearly defined as one or the other. A sand of that nature is heavy enough to be easy to clean and does not allow much dirt to migrate down between the grains. It is the best of both worlds but I find it difficult to locate sometimes. Fine sand like play sand or filter sand is easy to find and coarse gravels, like typical aquarium gravel is also easy to find. That perfect in between product is no less common in the ground but is much harder to find in a store. I am talking about a sand that would be rated as a 10 grit, about 2 mm in diameter average.

 

[sparkycufc]

My personal favorite substrate, for a conventional tank, is somewhere between a fine gravel and a coarse sand. I try to get something that defies being clearly defined as one or the other. A sand of that nature is heavy enough to be easy to clean and does not allow much dirt to migrate down between the grains. It is the best of both worlds but I find it difficult to locate sometimes. Fine sand like play sand or filter sand is easy to find and coarse gravels, like typical aquarium gravel is also easy to find. That perfect in between product is no less common in the ground but is much harder to find in a store. I am talking about a sand that would be rated as a 10 grit, about 2 mm in diameter average.

That is the sort of thing that would be ideal, I shall have to keep a look out.

 

[kiriyama]

Sand, it's just a personal thing, think it looks nicer, if you are keeping bottom dwellers such as small corydoras then sands the way to go ....