Which is a better "look" for a cichlid aquarium?

[mbunafishkeeper]

I've got a really course mix of tiny river rocks and sand on top too, need the Geo's to sort it out for me because it's mainly 1mm or so sand.

how big is this tank?

 

[dlp40]

Black gravel it just brings the fishes colors out and does not endanger the filters.

 

[T1KARMANN]

sand looks nice but its harder than gravel to maintain

 

[SCOOTERBUCK]

Sand looks much more natural. I converted two 75 gallon tanks from gravel to sand. Make sure to turn off your filters and rinse the sand until there is no dust left before adding it to your tank. I used a special pool filter sand that you can buy @ any pool supply store. The name escapes me right now, but it is much more white than regular pool filter sand (which is brownish).

 

[japes]

how big is this tank?

4x2 footprint

 

[skiptomyzoo]

camera pic, but heres my 90 w/sand (adding driftwood to it later today)

 

[Bderick67]

IMO sand is a pain in the butt. Make sure you use pool filter sand and keep your filter intakes high. Some cases it can look good but you will have more debree floating atop the sand so more frequent cleaning are needed.

 

[sg1]

^^ do you think its worth the trouble?

 

[bolty]

I find sand gets into the filters and is a pain, I would not do sand in my tanks.

 

[cookiemonster]

^^ do you think its worth the trouble?

I think it is yes. In order to cope with the sand getting sucked into the filters I just raised the intakes. The only time I ever had problems was with a breeding pair of dovii that learned that if they spit sand into the intake it would dissapear.