Hi all -- so I've been keeping fish for about two years now, however I'm the type of person who researches things to the brink of obsession, so I've learned a lot in that time.
When I was first starting out, I used your typical gravel substrate you'd find at any LFS. I cycled the tank properly, I had a fairly weak bioload, and I did 30% water changes weekly, vacuuming the substrate thoroughly each time.
Even though I was very diligent in cleaning the tank (36 gallon bowfront with an AC50 which I now know was insufficient filtration, even for some Zebra Danios and Cory cats), I ended up with Ich twice during my adventures in gravel. I didn't lose many fish, however I've always used play sand subsequently as A) I still keep many species of Cories and more importantly B) I feel a bit gunshy to try gravel again. The thing I noticed was that no matter how much I vacuumed, there was always still a decent layer of detritus on the very bottom of the aquarium that it just wasn't very feasible to reach. Leading up to my switch to play sand, I was getting over the Ich still so I was doing large water changes and vacuuming every day or every other day in order to maintain the proper level of meds.
When I actually made the swap, I was shocked to see the amount of crap that was still at the bottom of the tank. I prefer the sand now because all the poo stays on top of the sand and it's easier to keep it clean.
So my questions is, was I just really unlucky to have Ich outbreaks twice in the short time that I had gravel, or is it really that much harder to keep it really clean (and does having a small permanent layer of detritus below the substrate really pose that much of a threat)?
FYI I can't recall what I was doing in terms of adding stock at the time and I didn't QT, but the first outbreak happened well after I had the tank stocked.
When I was first starting out, I used your typical gravel substrate you'd find at any LFS. I cycled the tank properly, I had a fairly weak bioload, and I did 30% water changes weekly, vacuuming the substrate thoroughly each time.
Even though I was very diligent in cleaning the tank (36 gallon bowfront with an AC50 which I now know was insufficient filtration, even for some Zebra Danios and Cory cats), I ended up with Ich twice during my adventures in gravel. I didn't lose many fish, however I've always used play sand subsequently as A) I still keep many species of Cories and more importantly B) I feel a bit gunshy to try gravel again. The thing I noticed was that no matter how much I vacuumed, there was always still a decent layer of detritus on the very bottom of the aquarium that it just wasn't very feasible to reach. Leading up to my switch to play sand, I was getting over the Ich still so I was doing large water changes and vacuuming every day or every other day in order to maintain the proper level of meds.
When I actually made the swap, I was shocked to see the amount of crap that was still at the bottom of the tank. I prefer the sand now because all the poo stays on top of the sand and it's easier to keep it clean.
So my questions is, was I just really unlucky to have Ich outbreaks twice in the short time that I had gravel, or is it really that much harder to keep it really clean (and does having a small permanent layer of detritus below the substrate really pose that much of a threat)?
FYI I can't recall what I was doing in terms of adding stock at the time and I didn't QT, but the first outbreak happened well after I had the tank stocked.
