Gravel vs Sand

[salman]

I am going out in a few hours to buy some new gravel or sand. I've never used sand before but i think i might like sand more because it looks alot more natural. I also have alot of driftwood in my tank so i think sand might look better.
But, i dont know the advantages or disadvantages for both of them. Can you please help me?

[Fishguy2727]

Gravel:
Pros:
more common
more colors
traps food
Cons:
traps debris
more maintenance
unnatural except for fish very fast streams

Sand:
Pros:
more natural
keeps debris on top for you or filters to get
keeps food on top
Cons:
fewer color choices
harder to setup depending on type
harder to remove from tank

Go with sand. All my tanks have sand for a reason. It is more natural, cleaner, and looks better. I use Estes Marine Sand. It does NOT affect pH, hardness, etc. at all. It is very clean. It suggests presoaking as the only preparation, but I just dumped 20 pounds into my 40 and it is now (after a pretty short settling period) clear. When you dump it in sand attaches to bubbles, so you get these little blobs of sand floating around, as well as some sand just sticking to the surface, but just take a few minutes and pat the surface and it will be fine. I did this with all the fish in the tank and no one seems bothered. It works better if the tank is still pre-fish.

[YaYgoldFish]

Sand is just plain better. For one: easier to plant your plants. Also, it looks great with driftwood ( wich i love). The food instead of being IN the gravel, its ON the sand, making it easier to clean up. If you move around gravel, a bunch of junk goes into the water making it very dirty for atleast a few hours until it settles, while the sand if you move it around, ONLY some sand will go into the water flow and settles back in almost 10 seconds as if nothing happened. The ONLY dissadvantage is that you cant have an air pump cord under your sand to make the bubbles..but ehh who cares about the bubbles....., you have sand in your tank :)

[salman]

I'm going out to get some fish and buy some sand then, but wont the sand be messed up or something and float around and what if the filter sucks it in and then lets it out there will be a mess. ?

[Fishguy2727]

It took me about 15 minutes to get all mine to settle, but other brands may be much worse.

I keep the filter intakes no more than half way down the tank if I have sand in them, but the sand settles quickly so it is not bad.

[salman]

Thank you, Sand it is. I hope i get a good kind. Are more expensive ones better?

[Fishguy2727]

All mine is Estes' marine sand, if you can find that get it. It comes in black, white, beige (off-white), and a few others. Most of my tanks are a mix of black and white.

[salman]

I dont know what color to get, i just put on a black background, and the only thing i that will be in there is driftwood. Should i get the beige? I dont want to get black, the aquarium would be a haunted house lol.

[Fishguy2727]

I would do a mix. It is not too dark, but not too light. I have beige in with my axolotls and their big poops show up real bad. I do one black per 2 whites, it looks 50/50. And go with about 5 pounds per 10 gallons. Sand too think can cause problems. You can add some more later if you find it just isn't thick enough.

[Algenco]

Pool sand Grade 20 work well, a little larger grain

[YaYgoldFish]

I use play sand. What i did was put it in, and shut off the filter for the night. Next morning i wake up, tank looks great, turn on the filter to max:)

[MeganL3985]

I was thinking about sand for my new betta tank.....would it be okay for a betta? Also....you vaccum gravel and stuff but what do you do with sand....do you just hover the vac above the sand to suck up the debris/food/poop?

[YaYgoldFish]

I was thinking about sand for my new betta tank.....would it be okay for a betta? Also....you vaccum gravel and stuff but what do you do with sand....do you just hover the vac above the sand to suck up the debris/food/poop?


yes on everything :)

[salman]

You made a good point megan, Won't the sand get vacummed like everything else?

[Fishguy2727]

Not if you stay far enough away from it. And the Estes is heavy to resist being sucked up pretty well.

[MeganL3985]

How far away would you say, like no closer than an inch? And can you get Estes at a normal place like petsmart? Thanks :)

[salman]

1 hour until the store opens. I'm soo excited!! Everytime i want to buy something for my fish i get excited, its like im going out to buy a car.

[troy]

I was wondering wouldn't sand make fish more drab looking if it's play sand since
it's light in color. I've never used sand before.

[MeganL3985]

1 hour until the store opens. I'm soo excited!! Everytime i want to buy something for my fish i get excited, its like im going out to buy a car.

Hahahaha Just realized your in Kuwait! I was like "Your store opens at 1 am??"

[nanaglen2001]

I use sand, and my sand is of a very light beige color. My fish aint pale at all, cause I plant heavily and use swimming plants, to darken my tank. Then most of my roots are pretty dark.

All in all my tank has a slight haunted look. In this haunted environment (even with almost white sand) my fish display all colors.

@Megan: your Beta doesnt care if the substrate of his home consists of sand or gravel, cause Betas are surface oriented fish. What they need are swimming plants, in which they can build their nests, and hide away.

[dev]

I believe natural gravel is best in situations where your fish does not insist on sand. It allows for bacteria to develope in the substrate and is better at holding on to nutritions for your plants. Many cichlids (such as rams) will prefer gravel that is fine grained enough for them to get into their mouths. I try to get natural gravel, because it doesn't have any sharp edges.

If there are any diggers in the tank (such as corydoras), or other fish that depends on sand you should of course have sand as your substrate, or you will be limiting their natural behaviour.

If you have sand in a planted tank you should consider having sand snails. They will provide some movement in the substrate, allowing for some nutritions and prevent the forming of pockets of gas.

After these considerations I think it's all a matter of taste.

For years now I've been using coarse gravel with fine grained gravel on top, and lately I've been experimenting with having both sand and gravel in the same tank. Done the right way I think it can allow for some amazing aquascaping, while keeping all of your fish happy.

[Lady Hobbs]

I have just play sand in one tank and like it just fine. My next tank will have the same for my clown loaches and featherfin. Not too nuts on the tan color and maybe a bit of black in with it would look better.

[salman]

I just put in the new sand. But the water is still a bit blury and a little dirty. I know this will go in a day or 2, but can i put the fish back in? Will it hurt them or kill them?

[nanaglen2001]

That "Fog" wont hurt your fish. You can put them in. Just look at some pics which show how our fish live in the wild, that bit of fog in our tanks is nothing compared to that.

[salman]

Oh, thank you soo much. I'll put them in right away!

[Kuli_Loach]

I use Silica sand in all of my tanks. It works like a charm and the grains are larger. You can stick the vacum in and pull it up and all the sand will fall right back down to were it came from, well mostly.

[dev]

I use Silica sand in all of my tanks. It works like a charm and the grains are larger. You can stick the vacum in and pull it up and all the sand will fall right back down to were it came from, well mostly.

*shrug* as long as you don't keep snails... some plants don't like it either. Tried it in my 50 gal, not going to do that again.

[Fishguy2727]

Even in tanks without fish that 'need' sand, sand still keeps debris out of the substrate, preventing waste problems. Most of the fihs commonly kept are from waters too slow to have gravel as a substrate, most have sand, if not something closer to silt or mud. And most of your nitrifying bacteris live in the filter, not the gravel. There is some down there, but since the flow rate is almost nothing, there is not enough oxygen or nutrients to keep them going.

[MeganL3985]

Even in tanks without fish that 'need' sand, sand still keeps debris out of the substrate, preventing waste problems. Most of the fihs commonly kept are from waters too slow to have gravel as a substrate, most have sand, if not something closer to silt or mud. And most of your nitrifying bacteris live in the filter, not the gravel. There is some down there, but since the flow rate is almost nothing, there is not enough oxygen or nutrients to keep them going.

I dunno if this is a bit of a stupid question or not but for fish bred in
"captivity" do they know what type of a place they're suppose to live in? Are they born with a natural preference for it all? I always wondered that.

[Kuli_Loach]

My plants do great in my silica sand and so does my snails.

[dev]

My plants do great in my silica sand and so does my snails.

Then I'm not sure what you mean by silica sand. The ones available here contains rather high levels of aluminium, and kills of snails immediately. I guess you must have something different.

[Kuli_Loach]

Yea, it says silica sand on the bag and all of my snails I have had for almost a month now with no losses.

[dev]

Yea, it says silica sand on the bag and all of my snails I have had for almost a month now with no losses.

Then I withdraw all my mean accusations towards silica sand, they wouldn't have lasted more than a day in the stuff I was thinking of :D

[Kuli_Loach]

lol, it may just be the kind I got but it is silica sand that I got from my local hardware store. I checked everything out in the ingredients and it is ok as far as I know and it don't harm the fish. It is larger grain as well so it is a tad easier to clean to me anyways, it isn't that fine.

[Rocky06fx4]

For A planted tank I love the gravel/sand combo, Gives the roots sand to run through and gravel to hook onto.

[Kuli_Loach]

I do have gravel mixed in but not much, just for looks really. It mixes in real good when I vacuum it!!!

[salman]

I just put in all my fish and sand and everyting back in the aquarium. It got a bit cloudy and i can see dirt flying around. So i added 3 extra filters in for like a day or 2 to make sure all the mess it gone.

[RobbieG]

It may be better to let it settle a bit before you start running your filters

[Fishguy2727]

Even after many generations of captive breeding, they still know what they like to do. They do not need it by any means obviously, but everytime I setup a tank as natural as I can, they seem just that much better for it.

[S13DWS]

I have also wondered about using sand instead of gravel. Is it ok to use sand from a freshwater lake?
The fish i have (demasoni) arent from New Zealand as you know :P
The lake I am thinking of getting sand from is (or used to be) a volcano. So all the sand is volcanic matter I believe. Will it be ok to use this or am I better off buying some?

[salman]

I have also wondered about using sand instead of gravel. Is it ok to use sand from a freshwater lake?
The fish i have (demasoni) arent from New Zealand as you know :P
The lake I am thinking of getting sand from is (or used to be) a volcano. So all the sand is volcanic matter I believe. Will it be ok to use this or am I better off buying some?

I am not sure if you can. Go to your LFS, sand is pretty cheap.

[salman]

Are there any gravel cleaners that have small holes so that the sand doesnt get vaccumed? I tried vaccuming the sand, and you have to be like .5 away not to vaccume the sand, and not alot of the dirt is getting vacummed since its a little far :(

[nanaglen2001]

I cant say that the sand I use is sucked in by the filters too much.

Ok I find some grains in the canister when I clean it, but thats no wonder. My Cichlids always use spots directly next to the input for breeding.

And before only ONE egg is laid, they digg heartily, but the sand stays put.

Only for the record, I had to readjustice the filter input this morning, and forgot about the eggs...damn this Barnie bloke really can BITE :laugh1blue:

As for the distance between sand and input, maybe 3 inches, but I would guess 2,5 inches is more realistic. And I use a fat Eheim 2250 canister, with lots of power.

PS: if you keep digging Cichlids, you dont need to vacuum your sand or gravel:hmm3grin2orange:

[nanaglen2001]

@ Megan

Fish have an instinctive behaviour, like Cory Cats love to search in substrate for food, or Firemouths chew the substrate in search for food. Or lots of Cichlids which digg like mad before they start breeding.

And for those animals sand is much more comfortable than gravel. You have to imagine its like moving fat rocks around or chewing on boulders.

Other fish like Betas or Lifebearers or Gouramis or barbs dont care at all whats underneath them.

[Fishguy2727]

I would not use volcanic sand. Go with stuff from the LFS.

No sand vacuums that I know of.

[dev]

@ Megan

Fish have an instinctive behaviour, like Cory Cats love to search in substrate for food, or Firemouths chew the substrate in search for food. Or lots of Cichlids which digg like mad before they start breeding.

And for those animals sand is much more comfortable than gravel. You have to imagine its like moving fat rocks around or chewing on boulders.

Other fish like Betas or Lifebearers or Gouramis or barbs dont care at all whats underneath them.

This works both ways however. There are examples of fish that prefers a little gravel. My Bolivian Rams will pick up a single grain and suck on it for a while before spitting it out - even with mostly sand in the tank, they will go for a single larger grain. My german rams does not show this behaviour.

When I say gravel I mean something like .5 - 2 mm .. not a collection of small rocks (5 mm +) that you would use for your driveway.

Since we're talking about substrate, I might add that most fish prefer a dark substrate.

[nanaglen2001]

Thats true, dark gravel or a tank which is a bit dark because of plants and decorations is very much liked be the animals. It gives them a more secure feeling. So they are more relaxed, and show off their colors.

I can see the difference before and after gardening in my tank. Before my Firemouths have bright red gills, afterwards they are more silvery all over, like a kind of stealth.

[dev]

I have a nice example from a small tank where I have sand coloured gravel on one side, and snow white sand on the other side.

The guppies that live there will all keep to the gravel side of the tank, sometimes taking a stroll over the white sand but quickly return to the safety of the darker gravel.

I always knew they prefered dark, just not that it was so evident.

[Lady Hobbs]

I've always read to not use sand from the beach due to possible toxins. Just yesterday I was reading you can use it if you add some bleach to it and let it sit for awhile to kill anything negative. Rinse well and then soak in dechlorinated water. But when you can buy 100 pounds of PlaySand at Home Depot for less than $10, it hardly seems worth the hassle of getting your own.

PlaySand has already been sterilized since it's used in kids play boxes. I do prefer a whiter sand, however, so may have to use something else next time.

If you collect sand from the beach, you also don't want to use that which contain shells if it's for a community tank.