Bare Bottom Vs. Sand...

[Tampa]

I recently took my sand out! Not an easy job either, but the tank is extremely hard to clean with very fine soft sand. I switched to a black pebble type but I think I am going to switch again as this particular stuff is too heavy for them to bury themseleves.

Tampa

 

[cstillwagon14]

yeah i think sand too just for protection.

 

[oriolesdt09]

i would definitely go with sand over bare bottom

 

[oddball_freak]

Sand is better imo.

 

[fishfinger]

Sand or bare bottom it doen't matter, if you have a bare bottom it takes less maintenance to keep it looking good.

 

[T1KARMANN]

bare bottom is a no i would say as rays have taken years to evolve to live in the subslrate it like a bird with no trees

sand looks ok but it has a few down sides

1 - it sticks to the rays disc and makes them look dusty and horrible on black rays
2 - the rays kick it up to easy and it can get sucked in buy the filter messing up the filter impelers stopping the filters
3 - if you have sand in a acrylic tank and the sand sticks to the rays disk its like sand paper rubbing up the side of the tank = scratches everywere

Gravel is great if you find a very fine natural colored smooth pebble type

1 - its easy to gravel clean which takes no time at all when you are doing water changes every week

2 - rays can still cover them selfs with it and it falls of them fast not making the rays look dustry


no matter what you pick sand or gravel it needs to be kept thin no more than one inch

its total rubbish that a bare bottom tank is easyer to take care of than gravel in a normal fish tank this may be the case but in a ray tank they turn the gravel over so fast all the crap gets turned up and sucked in by the fillters

if you have loads of crap laying around in a ray tank then your filters are not good enought and you have way to many dead spots in the tank

 

[doe.ray.me]

i would say small fine rounded gravel its what i have in my tank i had sand before and the rays always buried themselves so i decided to change to the gravel in its great only a small layer is needed so it aint so hard to clean but they can still hunt for food aswell as bury themselves

 

[D.Pulcher]

Tropic Isle Tahitian Moon Sand srry too big thats just my opinion

 

[demetron]

i switched from play sand to black estates sand in my 300.
It took no time at all with a sump pump.
i just sucked up the sand into a bucket. took about 10 min.

 

[smurph1415]

both work, but sand provides more cumfort