Sand Or Gravel

[Haveagojoe]

At the minute I have one tank with gravel as the substrate but I am looking at getting a larger tank, upto 240 ltrs, Ive noticed that a lot of people on here use sand as the substrate an was wondering on the pro's and con's of both, the gravel in my tank seems to work well, the plants are growing well with a good root system on them, i can see that if I pull them up to move them around a bit.
Does sand compact and make it difficult for roots to grow also with gravel fish poop will not settle on the surface on the gravel but work its way down and feed the root system but with sand does it not just settle on the surface therefore requiring more maintenance to keep it clean, also how does sand as opposed to gravel help with fertilising the plants.
I really like the look of sand but am wondering about the practicallity of it.

 

[Ashers]

never have sand myself as I think I would be forever re-planting plants that have come out. Will be choosing for my new tank soon, but will probably have black gravel.

 

[weezawoo]

I used to use gravel but changed to sand.in gravel my plants stayed put but didnt seem to grow nicely. In sand they sometimes come out but i have more cories that root around at the roots but the plants have grown better and have better roots

 

[moochy13]

the poo sinking into your gravel may well be good fertiliser, but the way i see it its also rotting in your water. gravel vaccing should remove most of the poo anyway. i use sand, the poo does indeed stay on the surface, where i hoover it up off the top of the sand, therefor there is very little poo in my tank rotting. some of it, and waste food naturally gathers around the roots of my plants, that gets left there.

roots wise, i recently uncovered the roots of one of my swords (in my sig below) and judging by that root system, the 4 swords i have probably have a root mass that completely stretches along the back of the tank, and probably halfway to the front. rooted plants never come out of my sand, stem plants and cuttings however are a waste of time. i have a lot of bottom feeders that all like to dig around the bottom of plants, uprooting the non rooted plants. i dont add any extra food or carbon to my tank. my swords have grown from as tall as the wood in front of them to how they are in the pic below in about 3-4 months.

i see where you're coming from with the lack of nutrients sinking into the root system, maybe plants that use their leaves for nutrition gathering are better suited to sand ? as i said though, the tops of my roots are uncovered and are growing well.

 

[Jamepsss]

I have a layer of Aquabasis substrate under my sand. I've used gravel in the past but in my opinion sand looks better, is easier to clean and better for bottom dwelling fish. With a deep enough layer you shouldn't have any problem with planting.

 

[JoshuaA]

I went from small brown pea gravel to play sand then to black gravel.

I didn't like the pea gravel, I liked the sand but it gave the tank a weird glow and made my bogwood bright red it also always ended up with trapped gas and eventually became more hassle to maintain.

My black gravel is reinforced with tropica substrate underneath for the plants, however I do have about an inch and a half of black gravel before the tropica which is problematic for my foreground plants which don't root down far enough... I didn't angle my substrate so there was my first mistake.

Can't knock the play sand too much though as the price was fantastic.