Gravel to tank gallon ratio

[thetadays]

What is a good ratio for pound of gravel per gallon of tank? My son wants to upgrade to a 75 gal tank and I am trying get him a rough estimate on how much everything will cost him to set up.

 

[Psychocircus91]

Is the tank tall or long?

 

[thetadays]

He is looking at a long rectangular tank

 

[brennae]

Has he tried sand? I switched and really prefer sand tanks. One of mine is a Walstad method with sand for a cap. Does he want a planted tank?

 

[thetadays]

He is set on gravel. Our other tanks are gravel and the OCD kicks in

As for plants, he will probably go with some moss balls and a few leafy plants that look nice at PetSmart

 

[hpiguy]

The general advice for a basic tank with only a few plants would be a pound of gravel per gallon as starters.

Four 20lb bags of gravel would work pretty well for a regular 75 tank.

If you get it in there and decide you want a deeper bed, then add a bag until you reach the level you want.

 

[thetadays]

With a tank this big, do we have to worry about the weight?

 

[brennae]

any substrate will add a lot of weight.

 

[nereksnad]

greetings.

to be precise about how much gravel/sand (whatever you chose) you could do a calculation on how much volume you need to cover the buttom of the aquarium with, substrate products usually say how much volume that they contain.

i.e. lenght X height (how tall the gravel layer sould be) X depth / 1000 = liters, unfortunately i don't know how you americans calculate it.

as for weight, i really doubt you sould be worried. i've never heard of anyone having problems with adding gravel/substrate/rocks to their tank.

 

[KryptiCouple]

We have a 55gal with approx 50lbs of sand in it for substrate with tons of rocks stacked for cichlids, plus the water. I don't think you'll need to worry about weight. I second hpiguy's suggestion though.

 

[hpiguy]

A full 75 with gravel and stand will run at least 750lbs.

Most floors in good shape can support that weight spread across a quality stand without issues.

It's little more than three good sized adult men sitting on a couch and watching a game on TV.