Torn between substrates. Help me pick

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
davew;5089344; said:
black sand for me, i have tahtian moon sand in my tanks and it looks great, i've tried rocks before and it's very hard to clean.
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I wonder why people think sand is going to be harder to clean??

In my experience, it's actually the opposite:

  • A lot of debris (uneaten food, poop, etc) get's accumulated in the spaces between rock. This is hard to siphon out.. and is not easily detectable and is hence detrimental to water quality
  • OTOH, all this waste lies on top of the sand and is very east to siphon out during water changes.

Also sand looks much more natural and lets the cichlids play around and arrange the "terrain" as they prefer.

I would strongly recommend sand..

Good luck,
 
I use PFS in all my tanks, but that doesn't mean it has to look like a desert. I mix black sand some natural gravel and larger rock out croppings for a mix of colors and textures to create a natural look. I find sand PFS to be heavy enough to clean easly and it doesn't get sucked up while vacuming, the black TMS is lighter and will get sucked up the tube so mixing the two is the best way to use TMS in my opinion. Lighter and darker areas along the bottom also help to define terratories.
 
Personally i hate bigger rocks as substrate. Even large gravel is a no-go at my house.

It's just easyer to turn the bottom around with sand during a waterchange. And poop and food will fall between the rocks with no chance of getting eaten = waste of $ and polluting your tank.
 
Sand all the way man, you asked this question a couple days ago.

Sand is way easier to clean than gravel or stones. Remember the poop is going to get under those rocks, and i have even had times where i had bacteria living in gravel.

I would do light colored sand with a nice black background.

Or, black sand as mentioned above with a 3d background, or something light colored that looks nice. IMO black on black is way too dark for my taste.
 
O and you can always get some of those stones maybe a bit bigger(double the size?) and stack them in corners so your tank doesnt look really empty due to the white/tan sand.
 
I just used black sand for the first time. I had been wanting to do this awhile and it was totally worth it. Not too hard to clean. Could always just go with black regular aquarium gravel. Looks bout as cool as black sand. Not quite as expensive either.
 
But I hear the crap does get under the sand from some people. And that rock i have is super easy to clean btw, I just pass the vac over it an the crap come right up threw the cracks of the rock. I think i will go with sand though with my cement 3d background im working on. If i do get the black sand wheres the best and cheapest place to get it.
 
I actually really like a dark brown sand where can i get that? I like the 3M S-grade brown sand. Its the pool sand but i heard its discontinued is this true, if it is where else can i get a large grain brown sand. Ive read the caribe sea sand is really fine, i kinda want a bigger grain so its not so easily stured up.
 
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