Substrate- Gravel/stones/ Sand

[Lisa_brown87]

What do you all use as a substrate to line your tanks with?
Ive seen gravel, stones or sand. I don't think I'll go for sand. But I can't decide between gravel or stones (pebbles) for my community tank.
I heard that algae can grow my more easily between the stones and I will have a few algae lovers in my tank so prehaps I should pot for this choice?

Also, Who has gone for crazy colours, eg, red, blue, purple, etc and who has gone for those natural colours?

Lets hear your preferences everyone! I can't decide!

 

[shroob]

I have sand in 4/5 tanks, I much prefer it. To me it looks better and my fish seem to like it.

I would rather have a natural looking tank always, there is nothing worse to me than glowing pebbles and flourescent plants, it just doesnt look right.

 

[Lisa_brown87]

I have sand in 4/5 tanks, I much prefer it. To me it looks better and my fish seem to like it.

I would rather have a natural looking tank always, there is nothing worse to me than glowing pebbles and flourescent plants, it just doesnt look right.

I just ruled out sand because although it looks nice and natural, something larger might 'trap the algea' a bit more. I assumed this woul dbe better for my algae lovers. What do you think?

Lis
x

 

[nukeonekitty]

I don't know whether I would consider what I have in my mbuna tank to be sand or very very fine gravel, but I really like that because it's just heavy enough to allow me to siphon clean it and the mbuna love it because they can dig as much as they like. My other tank has bigger gravel and I hate it.

 

[Matty P]

I have natural coloured gravel in my community and when I get the new tank for the puffers I will be using sand, looks much better IMO

 

[Obsidian]

I have natural stones in my 20 gallon and my 100 gallon. the ones int eh 100 gallon are much smaller and I am considering actually mixing it with some pool filter sand. There are not fish in that tank yet. I like the natural look though.

In my 10 gallon I have black gravel and I really like the way it looks. And in my fry tank I have colorful gravel. I like how that looks in the smaller tank, but would not want it in a large tank. I also like that all the tanks end up looking a bit different because of the different gravels.