Substrate

[nemosworld]

my bettas have been on a bare bottomed tank for quite a while now with only java moss in their tanks. i'm thinking about getting some sort of substrate and sticking some java ferns in that. any ideas on what kind i should use?

 

[afishdude]

sand, gravel, pea gravel, marbles. any of those would work nice.

 

[Robotochan]

Use small dark gravel or sand to really show off their colour!

 

[MermaidMel]

Just out of interest, can anyone tell me WHY fish need substrate? I know it's their natural habitat, obviously the sea, rivers, lakes don't have bear glass bottoms, but I was just wondering what the benefits are to bettas, seeing as we take it out and wash it all off once a week (unlike the bigger tanks where they get to collect their good bacteria etc.)

 

[afishdude]

Just out of interest, can anyone tell me WHY fish need substrate? I know it's their natural habitat, obviously the sea, rivers, lakes don't have bear glass bottoms, but I was just wondering what the benefits are to bettas, seeing as we take it out and wash it all off once a week (unlike the bigger tanks where they get to collect their good bacteria etc.)

they dont, just people like the look of it.
but you cant put live plants in it unless there is substrate, thats why most people use it.
there no need what so ever for substrate, just nice to look at and makes people think you take care of your fish nicely.

 

[devon_charm]

I have a mixture in my barracks, i have used shells, marbles, fine black glass, black chippings used to surface roads and a fine mixed gravel so its really whatever you would like to see in the tank. But if you get bare rooted plants not potted a finer substrate would be better

 

[modaz]

pettex roman gravel is awesome stuff, its quite fine and comes in about 14 different colours, some are a mixture of colours, some a little sickly to look at but i use black on top of dorset pea, this give a great colour combination and shows of the colours of the plants, rock and the fish.

heres a pic of it in my livebearer juvi tank but will be using it on most of my tanks in the future including the bettas

 

[Dannikins]

I was wondering about substrate too. I liked the idea of using sand purely for the apperance, but is it worth it? How many people actually use substrate? I presume there is special fish sand you need to use?

Dannikins x x x

 

[devon_charm]

Its best to buy sand from the LFS as its designed for that purpose and it would be really hard to clean up sand from a beach to a good enough level. I think sand looks great but have never used it because i always thought i would suck it up the syphon

 

[MermaidMel]

It looks great, but it's a bugger. Firstly there's the awful cloudiness when you first fill the tank that lasts DAYS, then there's the thing of never being able to keep it properly clean because you can see everything on it and as soon as you swish, net or syphon you stir it up again and you're all cloudy again.

Saying that, if you use it in small betta tanks, as I have done, you can just get rid of the 2 handfuls you use each week so a large bag would last aaaages and it does look very nice.

 

[Samphire]

I had sand in Cream's bowl over night, it was awful. Got it free with the hex I bought few weeks back but had not used it. It left a fine dust on surface and went into little beads on the bottom. Binned it this evening, will stick to gravel from now on.

 

[afishdude]

I had sand in Cream's bowl over night, it was awful. Got it free with the hex I bought few weeks back but had not used it. It left a fine dust on surface and went into little beads on the bottom. Binned it this evening, will stick to gravel from now on.

you have to wash sand for 15 minutes under cold running water before you use it.