Glass gravel?

[GregW]

So we are new to Aquariums. While designing our tank we stumbled upon a glass company that advertised sizes for Aquariums. I tried to talk my wife into a smaller size but she liked the look of the 1/8 to 1/4. So I tried out my water changer/gravel Vacum. The glass is to heavy for the gravel cleaner to pick it up.
Is this going to be a problem? I'm worried stuff will get trapped underneath and affect the tank eco system.

I know, I know, where are the fish? I haven't been able to master the fish less cycle yet. 28 days in and virtually no drop in ammonia and no nitrites.

 

[tharge26]

I think it looks great (as long as it has no jagged or sharp edges) Your tank is beautiful.

 

[Convict2161]

Tank came out great. I'd like to hear more about this glass substrate.

 

[GregW]

We found a source where you can buy crushed, tumbled glass in bulk. It is sold mostly for other decorative applications. But they do promote some of their smaller stuff for aquariums. And they have and endless supply of color combinations. Its not feasible to fill your tank with the small bags of glass you see in the Pet chain stores. But you can buy this in 50lb bags. Much of this is around $2.50 to $3.00 a lb. But they have about a dozen varieties always on sale for down to .89 a lb which is what we paid for ours which we calculated was as cheap as any other substrate we would buy.

 

[CrashCourse]

I love this! Beautiful tank.

 

[GregW]

I am glad people appreciate our tank. I still am looking for answers on Weather it will be a problem that the glass is to heavy to lift up while vacuuming. Can I get away with just vacuuming the top. Will any type of gas or bacteria build up underneath?

 

[brennae]

Maybe just stir around the glass while you are siphoning to get the debris out? Might be a 2 person job. One to stir it up and one to siphon. That's all I can think of and I would worry about it too.

 

[Sharpchick]

How deep is it? The reason I ask is because if it's more than an inch and a half or so, you do need to stir it up to make sure you don't get pockets of anaerobic bacteria in there.

brennae's suggestion about one person stirring and the other siphoning is a good one.

 

[GregW]

Its about 3" deep. Would it be better to bring it down to under an inch and a half? Its not going to be easy to stir and will scratch up the acrylic tank. How often should I stir it to prevent build up. Is vacuuming at the same time required or could I stir between vacuuming?

 

[Sharpchick]

Its about 3" deep. Would it be better to bring it down to under an inch and a half? Its not going to be easy to stir and will scratch up the acrylic tank. How often should I stir it to prevent build up. Is vacuuming at the same time required or could I stir between vacuuming?

If you can go shallower with the glass, I would. Keep in mind that as you remove it, you may have an ammonia spike. Watch your water chemistry after you take some of it out.

And when I deep vacuum my gravel, I do half the tank at a time (per water change). When you stir, you will want to vacuum because you're gonna have a lot of stuff dislodged.

And yeah, stirring the glass is going to scratch the acrylic. Maybe get a teflon spatula just dedicated to stirring?

 

[GregW]

Thanks for the advice. I think I will drop it to an inch and a quarter. Are any of these Vacuum/water changers better than the others or are they all about the same. I can't use the ones to hook up to the sink as I have no standard faucets to fit them on.

 

[GregW]

I took it down to about an inch and it looks better and should be easy to clean.
Now that I know about the potential for problems with substrate that is to deep. Are there concerns about not having substrate deep enough?

 

[brennae]

You can have a bare bottomed tank if you like. No minimum required.

 

[GNarnian]

It's really all about plants. If you have live plants, they need the substrate to root into. That's the only reason!

 

[GregW]

Ok, well the Rookie learns something new every day. Thank's!

Now if I could just find a way to make the fish less cycle work.
30 days, no dropping ammonia, no sign of nitrites.

If I had a gun I'd .............

 

[brennae]

You don't want to try fish-in cycling? There are some good articles on this forum about it. I usually do fish-in and I use bacteria booster just for good measure.

 

[GregW]

How would I start that with my current tank conditions. Just empty the tank out to get rid of most of the ammonia. I guess what I'm asking is can I just use these articles or do I need to add a step before I start?

 

[brennae]

I really don't know. I've never done fish-less cycling. I imagine you would have to empty the tank. Were you planning on live plants? Those help with cycling faster.

 

[GregW]

Well the Glass Substrate didn't work out for us. We never could get the fish less cycle to start. So we went down to the shop thats been in our neighborhood for 43 years and found out all the things we were doing wrong. So I'm starting out fresh and one of the recommendations was to ditch the colored glass. I guess in our area the water is so soft that it can cause things to leach out of the glass.
Oh well who knew!

 

[GregW]

Fresh new start!