Sand Or Gravel

[coalpoolwalla]

whats best to have in a tropical tank or is it just personel preference.


was looking at the argos childrens play sand,,, cheap enough !

and would i have to clean the sand first

 

[waterdrop]

its personal choice

 

[coalpoolwalla]

ok thanks... ive read that sand is alot harder to clean.

how exactly do u clean it. i dont fancy sucking on a gravel cleaner and having mouth full of sand as well as water lol

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, lol, try to make your first suck count, as it may be the only one with air!

The difference between substrate cleaning with gravel and with sand is minor. With gravel you plunge the hard clear plastic cylinder down into the gravel and let the captured gravel be churned by the upwelling water. With sand, first of all its easier to use either a significantly smaller cylinder or to use simply a piece of clear flex hose and what you do is practice holding it somewhere a few inches above the sand and waving your fingers around a little to stir up the debris, then you suck up the debris up in the water with the hose. A good technique is to block the hose with your thumb and then open it when you want to suck up some debris. Some sand will always get lost but sand is cheap and some day down the road you can just add an extra scoop and all the lost sand will be made up! A good tip is that the more you plant your substrate the fewer areas you'll be able to get at and clean anyway! (of course you gotta learn how to keep those plants alive, lol)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[thestick]

i have had both in the past, i prefer gravel now as i can clean the gravel and change the water at the same time.

with sand i was cleaning the gravel with an air vacuum cleaner, then use the normal gravel cleaner to siphon the water out. i didnt like just using the gravel cleaner as i found it stirred up the sand too much and buried a lot of the much.

also i found plants were much more difficult to keep alive in a sand bottomed tank rather than gravel