What Gravel And Where From

[Bravo2zero_sps]

Hi

just about to setup a new Jewel Trigon 190 tank. I have seen some gravel that I like, a 50/50 mix of blue and white but its hideously expensive (£3 for 2kg) and was told I would need about 50kg in total to put an inch of gravel in.

So what I want to ask is can you use cheaper gravel from garden centres/building suppliers and wash it thoroughly or should I be sticking to aquatic gravel? Also is 50kg about right? Can I get awy with 25kg if I dont want as much as an inch + at the bottom or will it be too little?

What are your opinions?

TIA

 

[KimA]

Hiya,

Might just be me, but 50kg seems a lot. When I put gravel in my Juwel 180, I bought a 25kg bag of gravel which gave me a good 1-2" of cover (at least) and I didn't even finish the bag!

Kim

 

[Bravo2zero_sps]

Hiya,

Might just be me, but 50kg seems a lot. When I put gravel in my Juwel 180, I bought a 25kg bag of gravel which gave me a good 1-2" of cover (at least) and I didn't even finish the bag!

Kim

Thank you for your reply, that sounds good to me and will go with 25kg as I couldn't believe i'd need 50kg. What gravel did you use and how much did it cost you?

 

[b.c.f.c]

yep 50kg sounds a lot to me , id say if you are having live plants in your aquarium then you will about 25kg but if not then 25kg should be much more than enough.but in my opinion sand is much nicer and easyer to clean .

 

[demonmagus]

you can buy playsand from B and Q and places like that... super cheap

 

[SirMinion]

I don't use gravel anymore but when I did it always came from garden centres or even off the local beach!

A soak for a week in often-changed clean water then good wash in very hot water and I never had any problems.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yea just get some pea gravel from a garden centre, give it a good wash, and a soak (so anything in the tank thats going to react with water will do it in aq bucket rather than the tank

 

[Bravo2zero_sps]

Thanks for the replies. I was particulalrly looking for coloured gravel which is why i'm finding everything so expensive compared to the bog standard stuff. Have found a 23kg bag of red/white/black gravel in Homebase for £6.99 which is suitable for aquariums but the Mrs prefers blue and white So now need to go round the other places such as B&Q etc to see if anyone does a blue version. Buying blue and white from my LFS's was going to be £40+ just for gravel which to me is stupid money.

I should have mentioned in the original thread I have an 8-9 year old tank already with bog standard gravel in it and I wanted to go with something a little more colourful for my new setup.

 

[KimA]

Hiya,

Might just be me, but 50kg seems a lot. When I put gravel in my Juwel 180, I bought a 25kg bag of gravel which gave me a good 1-2" of cover (at least) and I didn't even finish the bag!

Kim

Thank you for your reply, that sounds good to me and will go with 25kg as I couldn't believe i'd need 50kg. What gravel did you use and how much did it cost you?

I bought a very fine black gravel from my local lfs at Wyevale Garden Centre - got it free when I bought the first tank (!) from them, but it's normally about £20 for a 25kg bag.