Tropical Fish Keeping banner

Gravel: What happened here!?

1K views 9 replies 6 participants last post by  Angel079 
#1 ·
Alright its been a few yrs since I last set up a tank and purchased the items needed to do that.
I can settle on many thing to be different from what I want BUT :lol: what I REALLY do not get:

What happened to the fish gravel supply over the past few yrs???????

I mean really all you find is this fairly large stuff and i do NOT want that. I want fine gravel, I mean 1-2mm fine max. and I want it in dark brown or black. Which does look very awesome with plants and fish but I can't seem to get this wish fulfilled at any store or online what's wrong with this!?

I had fine dark brown in many tanks before, so its not like the gravel makers never made the stuff before, which would they stop I WANT IT BACK!!!

I just pers. find gravel that's bordering on 0.5" size in a 10g tank looks way outta proportion and I REALLY don't like the looks of it, I don't even want that in my 55g's:cry:
 
#2 ·
Have you try Drfosterandsmith.com? They seem to have it And even walmart sells some black.
 
#3 ·
The only "dark" stuff I found at Drfoster is "Moon sand" whatever that is I donno.
And all Walmart has is that big stuff not the normal fine gravel :(
 
#5 ·
"Moon Sand" is Tahitian Black Moon Sand and it's a nice fine black sand. I have it in my display tank. Against this backdrop the colors on my fish *pop*. It also glitters under the led moonlights I have. I love it. The down side of this particular choice of substrate...a little bit too pricey.

There was a site (www.aquariumsands.com) that had many different selection of sands and fine gravels. It offered free shipping but when I go to the site it no longer exists. I guess that free shipping offer out them out of business.

I like fish999's suggestion. Sounds like work but you get what you want.
 
#4 · (Edited)
I couldn't find a good selection either so... I bought some screen about the right size and sifted the gravel from a pile of landscaping material. One big screen (max size) then sifted that through a smaller size (min size) ... then washed the sized gravel. It was time consuming and a lot of work but I eventually got the size and color I wanted. Take a look at your local landscaping suppliers and see if there is anything you might sift out what you want from.

"Salt River" landscaping material turns nice dark brown when wet, even tho it looks grey when dry. It's stream bed gravel, essentially.

Don't forget to wash it 5 times. ;-)
 
#6 ·
@fish999, actually I did look at that already, cause I liked the sizes within it and just figured different size kitchen strainers & washing it out few times and I'd have what I want (and actually at a far cheaper price then the ugly gravel cost me too) So now I'm happy to read I'm not the only crazy person using the gardening stuff in my tanks LOL

@Auntie I thought it may look nice, but for the big tanks I really don't want sand, just fine gravel, maybe for the 10g I'd consider fine black sand.

Off to the home store I am :-D
 
#8 ·
It's been years since I bought gravel. The FLS had it in bulk. They called it "natural" gravel. They scooped it up and weighed it on the spot. I'm not sure if LFS's still sell it or not. But it was only available in shades of brown. (see my tank for an example)
 
#10 ·
:greenyay::redyay::blueyay:
Looky Look...problem solved!
It really does pay off to 'think outside the box' after some washing out I REALLY REALLY like this DYI gravel LOVE the coloring and its size, its exactly what I wanted. Wasn't sure when it was all muddy & dirty it would be THIS nice after few washes.
Size comparison the pebbles in there for the "walkway" are 1/4"-1/2" in size so that gives you a good idea how lil the gravel is.
And a full frontal of the 10g tank, still bit cloudy cause I JUST filled it up and actually am not done, you see it still need water (but I need dinner first lol)
And it still needs more plants BUT again the mail man didn't come today (kinda obvious he wouldn't with Veterans day) so tomorrow planting season is on @ my house :)
Ohhhh I'm sooo happy, love the looks
 

Attachments

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top