New tank soon, sand or bare bottom?

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Slippery K

Slippery K

Piranha
MFK Member
Dec 5, 2011
2,491
27
81
Ontario, Canada
Hey everyone, I will be upgrading my main tank again soon hoping by mid July at the very latest.I have sand in the SW setup and I think its a pain to clean and maintain. All my smaller growout tanks are bare bottom so cleaning is a piece of cake on those.

So my question is, if I go with sand for this new tank (looking at atleast a 180 gal if not larger), whats the best and easiest sand to maintain? I hear pool filter sand is good but iv never used it myself (and whats the best way to clean the sand without sucking it up the vaccume?), and I dont necessarily like the look of bare bottom although it is much easier to clean. So whats your guys opinions? Right now in my 120 i used "peastone river rocks" and that is very easy to clean with a gravel pump.
 
After many years of keeping large fish and big tanks and tying all the different types sands, gravels and rocks...Even tile.. I found for me, that bare bottom is best hands down for a lot of reasons. With the right circulation and flow and the right placement of your filter intakes / over flows you will never have food / crap settle on the bottom, keeping that clean look. Also, who likes having to siphon & clean all that nasty gravel or sand once a month or more.. Too much work. Like I said IME bare bottom tanks are the cleaner, healthier and easier way to go IMO. I paint the outside bottom of my tanks now instead.
 
As much as I love the look of sand for me personally it is another headache so I use small gravel before I would go bare bottom.
 
The reason why I use peastones in my 120 is that I only needed 2 large bags for a 2-"3 depth (cost about 8 bucks a bag) and thegravel syphon works very well with them. They are too heavy to get sucked in, but light enough to lift them up and toss-up and mix around. But I do like th idea MonsterPeacock suggested of painting the outside bottom of the tank. What kind of paint did you use for that? I might try that on on of mysmaller growout tanks just to exparament lol.

Also if I do upgrade to a 200 or more, I have an interest in buying my first ray, so I know for that bare bottom would be best. I only have 2 large fish in my 120 right now and they could use alittle more room soon. But iv also always wanted a florida gar aswell. So if anything there ill only be 4 fish max in the 200+ with maybe some drift wood or the odd fake plants for effect.
 
Slippery K said:
The reason why I use peastones in my 120 is that I only needed 2 large bags for a 2-"3 depth (cost about 8 bucks a bag) and thegravel syphon works very well with them. They are too heavy to get sucked in, but light enough to lift them up and toss-up and mix around. But I do like th idea MonsterPeacock suggested of painting the outside bottom of the tank. What kind of paint did you use for that? I might try that on on of mysmaller growout tanks just to exparament lol.

Also if I do upgrade to a 200 or more, I have an interest in buying my first ray, so I know for that bare bottom would be best. I only have 2 large fish in my 120 right now and they could use alittle more room soon. But iv also always wanted a florida gar aswell. So if anything there ill only be 4 fish max in the 200+ with maybe some drift wood or the odd fake plants for effect.
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Rays like sand. It gives them a place to hide when they get stressed out. A 200g will work for a ray for a while (depending on what you get) but the more open floor space, the better. I have red flint sand in my ray tank. It's more brown in color than red and I have no problem cleaning it. It doesn't get sucked up in the vacuum. Just skim it over the sand.
 
i use pool sand in my 150 looks amazing. honestly really easy to keep clean,looks good i can just keep my syphon a cm over the sand it sucks the poo right up. I have never had a problem with it clogging or wrecking filters and all my cichlids love it, its cool to see them pick up the sand and make piles in different places.
 
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