Substrate Pros and Cons

[duanes]

I have also used sand for decades and find it easy to clean.
Detritus sits on top as opposed to working in, and if the current is aimed right, most detritus will end up in a single small area. In my 150 gal, detritus would collect in an area under where the pump outfall hit (a sort of plenum area).
So I could vacuum that small area and get 80% of the detritus in a very short time.
I never liked the idea of pushing detritus into filters, because unless you clean filters daily, that stuff isn't gone, its still in the tank, just out of sight, and it is constantly degrading into nitrate, lowering water quality.

 

[tiger15]

I find that a BB tank is hard to look clean, because there is no place for the detritus to hide. You either need to have a very powerful circulation and filtration system to pick up fish poop generated after every meal, or you have to siphon off manually frequently. A thin gravel substrate, no more than 1/2 inch, is nearly equivalent to a BB tank, yet works best to hide the detritus. The bio film on the gravel has the coagulation effect of binding the detritus from suspending in the water column. I am not fond of having my filters to pick up 100% of the detritus generated, because I don't want to clean my filters more than once a week. Since I am already doing WC weekly, I much prefer to siphon off the detritus buried in the substrate in weekly WC. My filters are reserved to remove suspended matter in the water column only to ensure the water looks crystal clear for my enjoyment. Also, I prefer 1 mm gravel over sand because sand can get sucked into the filters and damage the impeller.