Sand Or Gravel

[redevilman]

I am looking for some good advice on sand for my 80l tank which is going through the fishless cycle.Ive read that a few people are using argos play sand which is pretty cheap but needs a lot of washing.Also i want to get some real plants but my lighting is pretty awful its just a 18w fluorescent bulb so some advice would be great on lighting

 

[waterdrop]

Yeah, I had a little 18w tube on my son Oliver's tank and I wanted to do "low light method" and not the real high-tech stuff while we are still beginners. I couldn't absorb all the info about lighting fast enough and didn't want to make a wrong purchase yet, but I discovered that another identical light would fit perfectly, so how we have -two- little 18w tubes on our 28G which nicely puts us up over 1w/G hopefully sort of close to where we want to be. This was a great stop-gap measure for us.

There are clearly some great little companies out there on the web making various hoods (not sure what machine my bookmarks are on or if I even have them, sorry) - I think one I was looking at were Coralife (?) which I believe had some straitforward tubes in reflectors.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[debbie888]

Hi

I used argos play sand...and it did need a good rinse out...I also bought some proper aquarium sand for a little fry tank I have...and that needed a good rinse also....sand gets my vote...I have now changed 3 tanks over to sand...and would never go back to gravel...so much easier to keep clean

Debbie

 

[loachman]

Definitely sand. Gravel will need washed too, just not as much. For most sands, it's not that bad though.

Sand just looks better IMO, is at least as good for plants as gravel and is better for bottom dwellers.

 

[Rooster]

You will need to wash gravel too !!! I just put the AP sand in a bucket - secure a hose pipe so that its on the bottom, then run the cold tap for 10 minutes.... ZERO effort !

 

[waterdrop]

I always can't resist putting on rubber gloves and getting in there churning the gravel in the bucket, lol! Then I can at least have the illusion that I'm using a little less water as we have been so short of it over here in the southeast USA.

 

[stumpy57]

well i have 3 tanks 2 of wich had sand in and i will soon be geting rid off the sand in the last one the thing is with sand it will show up any dirt so gravel get my vote