Which substrate?

[prisoner1572]

There are so many to choose from. All sorts of different kinds of sand, crushed coral, crushed shells, etc. Should I even go with sand? Can I just use regular pet store gravel? Is there a benefit to sand over gravel? If I go with sand, can I get ithe kind they sell at the hardware store?

[srgetz]

Basically aragonite reef sand is preferred, but some like cc & barebottom also. All have advantages, though I think sand is what you see most often.

The hardware store sand is not ideal (aragonite), it is silica which will not buffer the PH and it can cause other problems as well.