Two Substrates?

[Sacred]

It's probably a silly question, but has anyone ever had a mix of gravel and sand substrate tank? Just curious. I assume it would make things alot of more fiddly and probably looks a bit strange in a tank.

Just asking out of curiousity

 

[KittyKat]

Yes, but they tend to separate, with one sinking to the bottom and the other one remaining on top.

 

[reeeedfish]

+1 to kitty kat.

I had a river pebble gravel thing and mainly sand for my catfish. The sand sunk to the bottom and left the top covered in gravel.

 

[fluttermoth]

I think it can work very well to have a bit of both. You just need to make sure it stay in it's own areas.

So I have a bit of gravel around the plants to help keep them in till they root and allow a bit of water to move around the roots, and under rocks and bogwood so as I don't have to worry about anaerobic pockets forming (I know a lot of people don't think they do any harm anyway, but this way I don't have to worry about it whatever).

Then the rest I have in sand for the cories and loaches and to make a nice clear swimming spave above for the shoalers.

I find it looks very natural, myself.

 

[james_fish]

In my 55gal, I replaced the pea gravel with sand some months ago. I was to lazy to get every last grain of gravel out so small amounts remained. Pieces randomly lie on the top in certain areas of the tank. It is of similar colour as the sand I used to replace. It actually looks very natural and quite nice.

I think it only looks good because of the small amount of gravel though.

James.

 

[Athena]

Yes it does work if done properly. I have a 4ft tank "separated" into 3 different areas - the righthand side is sand, the middle is gravel and rocks, the left is a mix of gravel,large pebbles and sand (but not all mixed up together). I have used large pebbles/rocks/plants to section off the areas for sand so that very little gravel can get mixed up with it. Hope you get what I mean.

Unfortunately I have very naughty cichlids who just love to move gravel around, so I do find a few bits of gravel have been spat out onto the sand some days LOL - but I just net those bits up, allow the sand to sieve back through the net and put the gravel back where it should be. I think they just like to keep me busy!

A mix of subtrates can look very effective and interesting. I will try to take a pic of my tank later on tonight to give you an idea. I find it a bit difficult to get pics of the whole tank in one shot from my mobile camera, so it might have to be done in 2 sections.

Regards, Athena

 

[saz326]

Unfortunately I have very naughty cichlids who just love to move gravel around, so I do find a few bits of gravel have been spat out onto the sand some days LOL - but I just net those bits up, allow the sand to sieve back through the net and put the gravel back where it should be. I think they just like to keep me busy!


Regards, Athena

You must have the patience of a saint to do that!

 

[Athena]

Unfortunately I have very naughty cichlids who just love to move gravel around, so I do find a few bits of gravel have been spat out onto the sand some days LOL - but I just net those bits up, allow the sand to sieve back through the net and put the gravel back where it should be. I think they just like to keep me busy!


Regards, Athena

You must have the patience of a saint to do that!

LOL - well I don't do it every day - I just have a tidy up at the weekend during routine maintenance. With convicts you get used to them moving stuff around to suit themselves and making a mess of things in the process. I come along and tidy it all up, then during the course of the week they dig pits here and there and move wood/plants around etc - the aquarium never looks exactly the same from one week to the next

 

[Alasse]

I have a gravel section and sand section, they are separated with a foam wall

 

[Athena]

Not sure if you've made up your mind or not on the substrate query, but as I promised, here's a pic of how I did mine:

Regards

Athena