I noticed a lot of african keepers use white substrate. Doesn't this cause the fish to have less vibrant colors? Doesn't the fish poop and aglae show up more easily this way?
white substrate
- Thread starter RTCatz
- Start date
I converted an old tank into a Cichlid tank and left the old substrate in (mostly white with some blue,green and purple tossed in) and yes the poop shows up pretty good (and the pleco in the tank can REALLY poop). Just makes it easier to suck out with the Ol' Python. as for alge my cichlids dig so much nothing seems to have a chance to grow on it.
good question. i plan on using light sand in my next tank because we only have light sand around here and it is cheaper to collect it than buy it.
It's my preferance to use brown or grey substrates over lighter ones since the light substrates, depending on what habitat your fish are from, seem so unnatural.
But yes, I've used white playsand and silica sand with no other choice and though having sand was great and not having to deal with gravel and watching the fish dig so much was great it was kind of a bummer seeing how obvious poop was over light sand. Easy to spot while cleaning though.
I've got my natural looking sand now and I'm much happier. The fish could probably care less! They look great either way.
But yes, I've used white playsand and silica sand with no other choice and though having sand was great and not having to deal with gravel and watching the fish dig so much was great it was kind of a bummer seeing how obvious poop was over light sand. Easy to spot while cleaning though.
I've got my natural looking sand now and I'm much happier. The fish could probably care less! They look great either way.
I use white silica sand in my mbuna tank, with a black backgroud. If you ask me, this combination has the best effect on the fish's colour. If you do a black background with back sand or substrate, its much too dark, and really doesn't do much for the fish.
i have seen tanks with light sand and it seems to bring out the fishs color ok. Now after i have black sand in all my tanks i think light sand looks better. Hey sinister i forgot you were on here. recognize you from cichlid forum. you have more posts than me there too.lol
I find sand mixed with fine coral chip and pieces of coral work extremely well. General colouring of the sand in Lake Malawi is light. I don't find the fish poo shows up that badly. Sand is far easier to keep clean than gravel. Had a tank of each when I started and soon got rid of the gravel tank. I think the bacteria grow better in the sand and as said the mbuna are continuously sifting it.
i have white sand in my SA/CA growout tank...............it does show the poop and leftover food more but i think it's easier to clean............
