How Combine Sand & Gravel in Same Tank?

[Big Kahuna]

Hello Y'all,


I'm setting up an 180 gallon acrylic tank. I would like to have both gravel & sand because I will be keeping sand-sifting Malawi cichlids as well as other cichlids that don't need sand so I would like to have both sand & gravel.

Any suggestions on how I can separate sand & gravel in a large tank without the sand eventually being all over the tank??

P.S. - I'm new. Can you guys tell me where the use of "bump" is explained?

Thank You.

 

[FSM]

Theres no reason to have gravel in part of the tank. In my 75 I sprinkled gravel over the top of the sand, but that is just because it looks good. If you mean having part of the tank gravel only, I think that would not look very good. Sand in the entire tank would look a lot better.



people say bump so their thread will go back to the top of the page, where people will see it.

 

[beblondie]

You could use a piece of plexiglass to seperate the gravel from the sand just silicone
the plexi to the bottom of the tank-Anne

 

[azfishfool]

or you could use the yard seperator stuff in the lawn and garden areas its a flexible plastic so you could have a wavy divider if you wanted

 

[itstrickytorock]

I have a mix of sand and gravel in my community tank cause I wanted my corydoras and bolivian ram to be able to sift the sand. It looks pretty good where the gravel and the sand mix together, and there are some spots that are all sand, and others more gravel. It tends to mix together when I clean, I think it looks best mixed together, but it still allows the fish to sift. Perhaps instead of half and half just mixing it would work? Just get colors you would like the combination of. I'm sure the divider idea would work though for a split substrate.

 

[beno]

If you sparsely bury bigger gravel so it's slightly sticking out it looks pretty nice. I've done this with very fine gravel and bigger gravel.

 

[Big Kahuna]

Awesome everyone! Thanks for your excellent suggestions!

 

[DucatiDragster]

Nice threads