Gravel, sand or nothing?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
_Sushi_ said:
Here I come to be the devil's advocate. I've had both sand, and gravel in a piranha tank. Play sand tends to get stagnant if they're not churning it up, I've heard it can trap toxic gas bubbles, and come back to bite you later. I've used gravel to the best effect. I hate bare bottom, because you have all that crap in plain sight. I'd rather have to siphon gravel than have it sit there and taunt me! lol Of course, I was teased for having my rbp on hot pink gravel, but boy did he have some color for a little guy! ^_~
Click to expand...

I saw that in the beginning. Then I fixed that by getting the eheim gravel vac. And I spot clean every day. Don't see anything.

Sent from my PC36100 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
 
yeah, if you do sand or bare bottom, just spot clean daily or every other day

i'm not sure why you'd want to hide the bad stuff
 
ballinouttacntrol said:
yeah, if you do sand or bare bottom, just spot clean daily or every other day

i'm not sure why you'd want to hide the bad stuff
Click to expand...

+1

Hiding crap and waste still results in nitrates, barebottom makes it VERY easy to keep nitrates loooooow! Sand does look pretty sweet but my p's will stir it up all day every day

#1 S. Vettel
 
Sand all the way.
 
red belly piranha on hot pink gravel=puke

lol, i bet it did bring out a tad bit red though but it'd be interesting to see the effects on a sub adult or older since their colors fade as they get older
 
Hot pink gravel?? Hell no I'm a chick and still would never. (no offense to anyone who would). It's been bare bottom for a while now and I love it I go in spot clean and done. It's so much better than all the gravel that was in there. And the 125 is much easier to keep under control too.

Sent from my PC36100 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
 
I've have play sand in my 90 and I will not do that again. It required too much initial cleaning, and it's too fine. I spent a little more on pool filter sand for my 55, and I like it A LOT more. More consistent granule size and a more natural look. Also took much less time to rinse clean before I put it in the tank.

I barely have any visible waste in top of my sand because I keep a decent current going in both tanks. The waste gets moved around enough to get picked up by the filters, so I rarely have to spot clean (though I still do just to be sure). If it wasn't so much more, I would happily fill my newly acquired 180 gallon with black sand, but alas, it would cost more than I'm willing to spend on substrate.
 
Once you go barebottom, u never go back. If you have a well establish tank, the poop/waste will eventually get dissolve and broken down by bb


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
 
When I got my 50 gallon I tried to keep it as bare bottom. That lasted two weeks at the most. Then I went with gravel because that is all I had ever used before. I saw some old pictures of a friend's saltwater tank and decided to try sand. Went cheap and got the playground sand. Cleaning it wasn't too bad because I did it in small batches. It took some trial and error to get the sand depth right (dead zones as previously mentioned) but now I'm using 1/2 inch depth with no problems. I used to use this vacuum and it worked great. For the first dozen vacuums I was pulling up fine particle sand but over time the denser granules stayed. Now I only take the hose that came with the vacuum to siphon out plant leaves and debris.

When I do add new sand my DIY filter will filter out the fine particles in an hour or two thanks to a microfiber filter.

I will add that my 20 gallon sump has around 3 inches of gravel in it that works great as a bio filter. I just added some large plants to it and vacuuming the gravel is almost pointless.

For reference my 50 gal cycles with a 20 gallon sump. They are stocked medium weight right now with a 6 inch bullhead catfish, a 5 inch Rio Grande cichlid, a 4 inch bluegill, 4 inch longear sunfish, 4 inch goldfish, 2 small 1 inch bluegill, three small cory cats, a small crayfish, a school of mosquito fish and probably some other stuff hiding that I've forgotten about.
 
Longshot said:
When I got my 50 gallon I tried to keep it as bare bottom. That lasted two weeks at the most. Then I went with gravel because that is all I had ever used before. I saw some old pictures of a friend's saltwater tank and decided to try sand. Went cheap and got the playground sand. Cleaning it wasn't too bad because I did it in small batches. It took some trial and error to get the sand depth right (dead zones as previously mentioned) but now I'm using 1/2 inch depth with no problems. I used to use this vacuum and it worked great. For the first dozen vacuums I was pulling up fine particle sand but over time the denser granules stayed. Now I only take the hose that came with the vacuum to siphon out plant leaves and debris.

When I do add new sand my DIY filter will filter out the fine particles in an hour or two thanks to a microfiber filter.

I will add that my 20 gallon sump has around 3 inches of gravel in it that works great as a bio filter. I just added some large plants to it and vacuuming the gravel is almost pointless.

For reference my 50 gal cycles with a 20 gallon sump. They are stocked medium weight right now with a 6 inch bullhead catfish, a 5 inch Rio Grande cichlid, a 4 inch bluegill, 4 inch longear sunfish, 4 inch goldfish, 2 small 1 inch bluegill, three small cory cats, a small crayfish, a school of mosquito fish and probably some other stuff hiding that I've forgotten about.
Click to expand...

that's a lot of stock for a 50. Goodthing u vac a lot!

#1 S. Vettel
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom