Sand Or Gravel

[mitch]

At the moment there isn't anything in my tank apart form my fish.
I cant decide wether to use sand or gravel. The fish that it will effect will be my bottham dwellers:-

20" Red tail cat, 20" Girraffe cat and my three 14" plec's.

What do you guys think and why????

Please vote

Cheers

[muridae]

I've got only one tank with sand substrate but I don't like it. It gets smelly really fast, supposedly from hydrogen sulfide gas trapped between sand particles. It smells... swampy, or sewagey. Not good. I have to rake the sand every day. Of course others have probably had totally different experiences, but that's mine.

I'm assuming that with those cats you'd have a giant tank, which would hold a heck of a lot of sand and require a lot of maintenance to not smell. I'd go for gravel, were I making the tank.

[Barbie]

It's easy to keep sand nice and clean and not smelly... don't put more than an inch in your tank. It's just that simple ;). I prefer sand in most of my tanks, personally. Gravel traps detritus and you may not SEE it there, but the fish have to live with it in there, just the same. When its on the sand, you can get it all out. Just my preference

Barbie

[BK]

at what size do you consider the division between gravel and sand . i prefer a small gravel, i've heard others call it Large sand. its relatively easy to clean, selltles flat enough to keep rocks and decorations from rocking/tetering like the larger gravel i used to use, and my banjo cat can dig in it just fine. my plecos like to dig in it to.
here is a pic http://ourworld.cs.com/kraut491/gravel.bmp

[Stuey]

hi there,

I use sand as a top layer in tanks from 22g to 45g and intend to use it in the 76g I am setting up now.

The sand goes on top of a thin layer of pea gravel with laterite mixed in.

The tanks are planted which may help prevent gas build up, and I prod around in the sand often too. The catfish do the rest.
Like Barbie says, keep the sand layer fairly shallow

Stuey

[Shane]

Actually, gravel is a rather unnatural substrate for the vast majority of tropical fishes. Except for certain piedmont spp. (like fast water plecos, some pike cichlids, and a few others), very few fish live around gravel. The banks of all the big South American rivers are either sand or mud and this is what fish prefer. Since mud is not a very good option, I would recommend sand. For a very natural look, use a mixture of 4/5 sand and 1/5 small gravel with a single handful of large gravel mixed in. The contrasting sizes are attractive and look much more natural than a substrate of all the same sized pebbles. Gravel had its use back in the day of undergravel filters when its main purpose was to serve as a filter media. Since very few people now use undergravels, there is little reason to use gravel or have a substrate deeper than an inch. The obvious exception is a planted tank.
-Shane

[Jools]

I think this is turning into a general topic about sand Vs gravel (Vs bare bottom). I'll try and haul it back to the selection of fish in question.

Bear in mind that 1" of sand in a tank/pond big enough to keep these fish together (in terms of surface area, and serious filtration) will drift leaving large bare spots. If you want to stop this you need 2-3" of sand and it will drift into piles of up to 6" in places, again due to filtration and large fish movement. Generally the fish will take care of the inevitable methane gas build up (esp. the giraffe cat), via digging and movement, but it is a worry.

That all said, sand is as natural as gravel for a red tail which do not live over either very often. The rest of the fish are equally happy although I suspect the giraffe cat would have a preference for sand. I guess about the best would be large flat stones with sand in between. This would minimise drifting and still give a natural look (to us, not sure about the fish!).

If it were me, I'd keep the plecos over gravel, the giraffe cat over sand and the red tail in a bare tank so I could remove all its uneaten food quickly. But then, I wouldn't waste all that space on the one fish!

Jools

[mitch]

I'd keep the pl*cos over gravel, the giraffe cat over sand and the red tail in a bare tank so I could remove all its uneaten food quickly.

Uneaten food, a RTC, no chance!!!!

[Dinyar]

Asking "which is better, sand or gravel?" is like saying "which is better, coffee ot tea?" or which is better, ice cream or chocolates?" To my mind the only sensible answer is "it depends."

Back in the days when dot.coms were burning money, Pets.com had a limited special on Seachem Fluorite, almost giving it away. I found a simple way to order unlimited quantities of the stuff, and proved the old saying that there can be too much of a good thing by ending up with enough Fluorite to build a house with. So for years, we used generous helpings Fluorite for all our tanks (except the Tanganyika). It's great for growing plants, especially when you pile it up to 4" or so. All except the top half inch or so goes anaerobic, but that doesn't matter if you don't stir it up, and in any case, you can't stir it up if its laced with plant roots.

Nowadays we have been keeping more burrowing fish and we've been playing more with sand. The plants in these tanks are mostly Java fern and the like, which don't need to root in the substrate. For the kinds of tanks we've used sand for, it's great. If we had less legacy Fluorite, we'd do more sand. But overall, although I think each has its merits, fine gravel allows for better bacterial colonization and better plant growth and would still be my substrate of choice.

If I was ambitious enough to keep large plecos, a red tail and a giraffe cat in one tank, I'd keep them over fine gravel.

Dinyar

[pturley]

I like everyone else so far voted "sand". However, in tanks with power filters where the impeller is down in a cavity in the plastic housing (IE: Marineland) I use gravel. Just a tiny bit of sand into the intake and down into this pocket will eat the magnet, impeller or housing of these units.

Most all my tanks have either bare bottoms, or sandbox type sand substrates.

[Walter]

Hi,
well, with really strong current in the lower area you get pretty sand dunes in your tank, and a part of the bottom is probably uncovered ;)

[MackIntheBox]

I voted gravel, its what im using now and it was just so lonely

I want to use sand myself but as im new to keeping fish im using gravel to start with. as my skills improve and I gain more fish... and tanks... I will want to move to sand. I think sand is more towards what the fish would get in the wild, the gravel we use is not normally seen in most rivers, even here in texas the banks of rivers and such are some small gravel but mostly mud and in some places sand.

[flyinmike]

Out of 7 tanks 3 now have sand. Not only does the fish poo stay on top of the sand, but with a little current it all moves to one corner of the tank. I will eventually change the rest to sand except the 55g fast water tank.