Best substrate for Oscar + Dempsey?

[SeriousDude5]

Well I have finally decided to sell my saltwater tank and come back to chiclids which are 100x cooler than saltwater fish.

Anyways, I plan on purchasing a 75gallon tank and housing a Tiger Oscar and a Jack Dempsey I was wondering what the best substrate would be on the bottom for them; should I go gravel or sand? By the way Im planing a simple setup of one large piece of drift wood in the middle with 2 caves on either side.

 

[drummerj]

i personally like sand for my jacks, but with my oscar i have gravel, just because he is so dirty. I typically use pool filter sand ( five bucks for a bag thats fifty pounds at namco!) it is in with my red devil, and soon to be, with my apistogrammas! If you can go for a bigger tank, id say go for that, too.

 

[SeriousDude5]

How big would you suggest then perhaps 90gallons? Also why would you not go with sand for the oscar?

 

[Voodoo Chilli]

I'm a huge fan of sand substrates; it'll be easier to keep clean with such messy eaters as you're looking into; the crud will sit ON the sand, rather than falling into the gravel.

A 75g would work, but I'd shoot for the 90g if you have the resources.

 

[drummerj]

with my gravel i always find it easier to vacuum it out, and yeah, if you can do 90, definately do it. I guess the sand/rock thing is all personal preferance, I have an albino oscar with white rock and it looks awesome. What kind of filtration are you looking into?

 

[SeriousDude5]

A fluval 404 or 405 I have had expierence with the 304 and liked it do you have any suggestions?

 

[drummerj]

405's are pretty good, and I particularly like how the magnum 350 works. Throw two on there and it's lookin pretty good IMO.