Sand or Gravel ??

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Sand is clearly more natural looking also. When it comes down to it its about personal prefference. whichever U like will work.

-ak
 
I also have sand and I love it, it is easy to see any fish waste and no waste gets under the sand.
 
If you want some easy sand to work with and don't mind paying more, try the Tahitian Moon Sand from CaribSea. I just put it along with Eco Complete in my 75 gallon. The Eco Complete is ready to use, just dump it in with no washing. The Tahitian Moon has to be rinsed but I rinsed 40 lb in about 20 minutes. Even when we distrubed the sand while filling the tank, the sand just settled back to the bottom without any cloudyness. The green plants against the black sand looks great too. Price though is a problem if your sticking to a budget. This stuff runs about $20 for 20 lb. I did find one place that had it for $14.99 online but you still have shipping.
 
Sand can sometimes cause gill irritation.

I use silica gravel which is a very fine grade.

I mainly have bare bottom tanks in my fish house.

I think it also depends on what fish you keep and what plants you want to grow.

A lot of plants grow well in sand too.
 
i have gravel in my tank and wish to dear god i'd got sand! i'm gonna change it over this weekend which will be a painstaking process but much worth it as my gravel is basically hiding places for fish poo and uneaten food.

with sand you can vacuum it by swirling the vac a little above the substrate, this will apparently lift the waste but not the sand

check out the pinned post "sand and the aquarium (hopefully this subject is put to bed)" by wolf for more info
 
The vacuums I have aren't quite strong enough to pick up the sand. They get some of it if you stick the end right on top of the sand but it isn't enough to matter, less than a spoonful if I siphon 10 gallons of water. I just got a python on Friday but haven't used it yet. I may be stronger and take some of the sand though.
 
i just got a 50# bag of pool filter sand at a hardware store for $12 (US). it's going in my new 20 gal long, and then if i have some left, i will switch one of my smaller tanks as well :D
 
You should have plenty left from a 50 lb bag. I only used about half of a 50 lb bag of play sand in my 29 gallon and probably have 3" of sand in it. I've still got a 50 lb bag left. Being a newbie, I bought 100 lb to set up the first tank. If I had put all that in there, there wouldn't have been room for fish.
 
I LOVE how sand looks in a tank.
Someday, I'm going to have a setup just like this:

tank.JPG


That picture belongs to fatbob.
I keep using it all over the place - I just LOOOOOVE that setup.
OOOoOOoooh :wub:
 

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