Hello, I'm new here and first off I'd like to say how helpful this forum seems to be! My father and I had a tank when I was younger and we have had a very large koi/goldfish pond for around 8 years now.
Now for my question, I will be getting a new 29 gallon aquarium around the end of the month. I plan to have it partially planted and have mollies, guppys, tetras, shrimp, all community fish. My question is wether I should use sand or gravel as a substrate? From what I have been told sand is more common with cichlids, and is not good for bottom feeders? It would be great if someone could shed some light on this for me.
I have corys which are bottom dwelling and they don't seem to mind. I also have some live plants, and I've found it easy to maintain them in the gravel as far as moving or trimming them, etc there is no mess.
From what I read sand is really messy and harder to clean, which is why I went with gravel, and I'm very glad I did. I also feel that gravel is something else to allow bacteria to build up on, like any other decoration.
How do you clean sand in a FW tank? A gravel vac will suck out the sand too, won't it? Or is the sand heavier than I think and in practice it's not hard at all to suck out just the poo?
My next tank (although several months away) will be a cichlid tank that I would like to substrate with sand, but I too wonder if it will be more of a hassle than it is worth?
i changed to sand few months ago, the hardest part of sand is to find a product everyone agrees will work and price. as for cleaning i just hold the vac 1/4 inch above seems to work fine. i also move the sand around during water changes so there is no spots that clump up. i haven't run into "clumps" mostly i think because my fish are always changing it to their likes. oh well its their home i just take care of it .best wishes and good luck in which ever choice you make . ( i like the looks of sand ) just my two pennies
Thanks for the replies, I think I'm going to go with gravel
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Tropical Fish Keeping
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