Choosing Substrate for my tank

[Drstrangelove]

Okay so using a bare bottom is okay?

I guess the answer may in part depend on your expectations on keeping the fish. Some fish have exceptional behavior given the right substrate which will never be seen in a bare bottom. Some regularly sift the sand like a vacuum, others constantly pick at it, while others will partly or fully bury their bodies in the sand. There are gravel movers / hole diggers, etc.

If you don't care about seeing natural behaviors (like those) that most people will never see with bare bottoms, then it might be okay. Otoh, if you tend more towards what I'd call the "naturalist" type of person, who wants to see fish as close to natural as possible, then you might make other choices.

 

[dan518]

Gravel and sand have a large surface area which will get colonised by bb, recently while upgrading my filtration I ended up with 2 six inch fish in my tank with no filtration, mainly through my own stupidity partly partly due to being messed about, I put in two powerheads and monitored the water daily. Over the course of the week ammonia and nitrite were undetected, nitrate built up at a rate you would expect from two small fish in a 215 gal. Personally think a substrate and a scaped tank offers you a bit of a buffer when these miss haps happen.

 

[nono]

Okay. I want them to have a behavior closest to their natural behavior in wild so i think i will try using substrate. And since it give some benefit for the ammonia level i will try it then. But does it okay if my fish sometimes suck the aubstrate especially like gravel that have rough surface?since you guys know bichir sometimes kinda suck its food

 

[Slythy]

Black daimond blasting sand is super cheap and dark if you want a dark substrate. Its carbon based not sharp and works really well. I have about 300lbs in my 180g planted tank. Since it isnt silica based you dont really get those algae blooms on it.

If you want brown/white go pool filter sand. It works well and is perfectly fine for aquarium use.