Sand vs gravel!?

[efinch77]

Hey everyone, im excited to get my 75 gallon started, but have a few questions. Would you prefer sand or gravel, i hear sand is a little trickier to keep clean but is better for your bottom dwellers. I dont plan on having any live plants as of yet. Looking for some good pros and cons, look forward to your replies, Thanks!!

 

[WhiteDevil]

sand has good and bad issues with it, lay it to thick it can get toxic, too thin and it blows around.

Ive grown plants in sand just fine.

Sand is harder to maintain however it looks so much better then gravel does and is more natural.
rinse sand for hours prior to introducing to the tank, leave filters off overnight just let it settle.

I will have more sand tanks in the future.

 

[Etunes]

I like sand 10x better. IMO it stays cleaner and looks a ton better. Like devil said wash a lot before putting in. Your tank will be cloudy and i personally leave my filter on as it cleans the little stuff out of the water and later on when you rescape it dosent leave your tank so cloudy as the filter has already cleaned out some of the smaller stuff. Looks good and is just as easy to maintain just takes a diffrent style of cleaning.

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

+1 for sand! sand looks way better in a tank, more natural. Alot of fish prefer sand to gravel. I have sand in my 80gal and in my 30gal. I'm planning on switching my 55 and 20 to sand eventually. Just haven't figured out how to do it with the fish in the tank.

I used play sand in my 80gal, which was a pain at first but now it looks really good. You can try pool filter sand to, I've heard of people using that with success. But either way you get really cloudy water. But in my 30gal I put in black tahitian moon sand. And I never experienced cloudy water with it.

But just remember if you want to put in a thick layer of sand you'll have to stir it up once and awhile to avoid toxins. I normally stir mine up once a week with the end of a wooden spoon that i use only for my fish tanks.

And I have also grown many plants in my 80gal in the play sand. Cabomba, java fern, anubias, crypts, val, and banana plants.

 

[BigJim]

+1 for sand. Play sand is usually pretty dusty. PFS is much cleaner to start with. I have plants growing in both play sand and PFS.

Stir up your sand with a coat hanger when you do PWCs or get some MTS and they'll stir the sand for you.

The only down sides to sand I've seen is stuff sits on top of the sand (maybe not a bad thing) so it looks dirty more quickly and some filters don't get along with sand. I lost a Penguin 200B because my raphael cat threw sand into the filter while digging. It chewed up the impeller (twice) and even a new impeller doesn't stop the squealing.

 

[mgamer20o0]

sponges on the intake helps that a lot bigjim. to me it really depends on what you are keeping.

 

[dkpate]

I prefer sand, PFS to be exact. It is easy to clean, and looks good.

 

[Crepe]

I have one gripe about sand only tanks. It causes root compaction if it's not agitated by something like MTS.

 

[efinch77]

Thanks guys, i appreciate your advice.....i just went out and bought 100lbs of pfs from my local home improvement store. I just have to wait for all my accessories to come in and do a final clean on the tank and then i will be ready to start decorating and the start the fishless cycling. Im excited!!!!!!!

 

[MarkA123]

I would definitely use sand. I use caribsea supernaturals in my 28g, it's way easier to clean than gravel, just takes a few times to get used to. It looks much more natural and is overall a lot better substrate in my opionan than gravel. I would leave you filter off because I rinsed my sand multiple times and put it in my tank, and was told to leave the filter on, which ruined 2 filter cartridge and damaged the filter because it kept grinding the impeller and clogging up the bio wheel and filter.

 

[MarkA123]

Be sure not to get it too thick, it will cause toxic gases. I keep mine about 1 inch.

 

[Fishguy2727]

I use Estes' Marine Sand Ultra Reef (freshwater safe) and never had any of the toxic, compaction, filter, etc. problems (and it comes in colors). I use black or black and white mixed.

 

[brimac41]

It's all a matter of preference . I dislike the look of sand nor do I like using sand and prefer natural gravel .

 

[DragonFish71]

I use pool filter sand in 2 tanks, regular gravel in 3 tanks, 3Mcolor quartz in 3 tanks and a mix of 3M and Eco Complete in another tank. (our QT tanks don't have substrate)

The pool filter sand is very easy to maintain. As for gas pockets, I stir up the sand once a week when I clean those tanks so it isn't an issue. I have plants growing fine in one of the PFS tanks.

The PFS was very inexpensive compared to other sands I priced. Mine is sugar white so it looks like a white sand beach.

 

[MarkA123]

Also, like you said sand is better for bottom dwellers such as corys, snails, etc. It really depends on personal preference and what fish and inverts you plan to keep. Also, gravel will accumulate food, poop, debris etc no matter how hard you try to clean the gravel. On sand it just stays on top waiting to be eaten by a scavenger or siphoned.

 

[Mark Hewitt]

Personally I have both! In my big tank I have cories in there so in there I have sand which is great for them as they are always searching about in it and it looks great too!

In my smaller tank I have just guppies who don't care what substrate is used so I have natural looking gravel in the bottom of that tank.

I think either is fine but personally I always want to go for the natural look, whether that's with gravel or sand. I started out with white gravel and I'm certainly glad I changed it for sand now!

 

[strokinbyeu]

I use pool filter sand in 2 tanks, regular gravel in 3 tanks, 3Mcolor quartz in 3 tanks and a mix of 3M and Eco Complete in another tank. (our QT tanks don't have substrate)

The pool filter sand is very easy to maintain. As for gas pockets, I stir up the sand once a week when I clean those tanks so it isn't an issue. I have plants growing fine in one of the PFS tanks.

The PFS was very inexpensive compared to other sands I priced. Mine is sugar white so it looks like a white sand beach.

ur lucky to find white pfs only thing i could find or order looked like wet sandbox sand

 

[DragonFish71]

ur lucky to find white pfs only thing i could find or order looked like wet sandbox sand

Yeah I've heard from others that they had trouble finding sugar white too. I just get it from a spa store up the road. Not as cheap as a hardware place, but couldn't find it at any here.

 

[libbyb]

I would also suggest being extra special careful to make sure your substrate doesn't get under any algae scrapers or scrubbers. Gravel can get under there too but is easier for it to fall away when you see it because of the larger size "grain."

 

[libbyb]

I would also suggest being extra special careful to make sure your substrate doesn't get under any algae scrapers or scrubbers. Gravel can get under there too but is easier for it to fall away when you see it because of the larger size "grain."