Belgianbiscuit Posted April 22, 2012 Report Share Posted April 22, 2012 I was wondering what is best to use, sand or gravel? I am planning to keep quite a few neons and some apistos. I never have used sand before but I think it may be harder to keep clean. Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted April 22, 2012 Report Share Posted April 22, 2012 There is a mix of experience and opinion on this subject. I have a tank of each and find both fine for my purposes. I have also had a tank that had gravel on one side with a divider and sand on the other for the corydora. A little sand got swept over into the gravel but I didn't find it an issue. If you do a search on phoenix44 you will find he has a 3 foot tank that was heavily planted into gravel and then he rescaped it to have a river of sand in the middle and then went a bit further with it. Joe made a tank with sand lately also. I think Deepsound has also made some biotope type tanks with sand too. Since you describe a situation where there aren't any bottom feeders I wouldn't think it mattered too much, it's up to your preference for the look you are trying to create or the plants you plan to grow (or not). People who want to grow hair grass or fine small plants will probably say sand is easier to plant the little stuff into. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted April 22, 2012 Report Share Posted April 22, 2012 +1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted April 23, 2012 Report Share Posted April 23, 2012 Plants in my experience will do better (and are soooo much easier to plant) in a small sized gravel. But if you have cories like I do, then you will notice such a huge difference in their habits when they have sand the dig around in! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LYNDYLOO Posted April 23, 2012 Report Share Posted April 23, 2012 I've just changed my 240ltr tank from autumn harvest gravel to sand, horrible stuff, drives me nuts :slfg: Had planned on changing all of my tanks to sand but nope wont be doing that, have gone to medium white marble chip in the others, much better, I can actually dig around in the chip with the gravel vac and I don't lose any of it up the pipe. With sand you really need to hover over the top of the sand with the gravel vac to pick up all the bits on the top, but usually I find by the time the tank has refilled there's crap on top of the sand already, so it never actually looks very clean. I'm abit of a clean freak :slfg: Hate dirty sand. HTH Lynda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamC Posted April 23, 2012 Report Share Posted April 23, 2012 Yeah, better to sweep the rubbish under the carpet aka gravel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belgianbiscuit Posted April 23, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2012 Thanks guys, This is very useful. Haven't made up my mind totally but am leaning towards gravel. I assume best place to go is local pet shop? And if I decided to go for sand, what should I buy (and where)? Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cricketman Posted April 23, 2012 Report Share Posted April 23, 2012 I'm a san(d)-fan :slfg: Yea, you may lose a little here and there, but my plants love it... and its cheep! 20L bag of daltons was like $15... and that did my 4ft to a decent depth... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted April 23, 2012 Report Share Posted April 23, 2012 I use river sand as it contains a bit of silt and is rounded. Plastering sand and some others is sharp. Also our local sand is greywacke which is chemically pretty inert. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dachende Posted April 23, 2012 Report Share Posted April 23, 2012 I'm a sand person myself, after using both, albeit neither for very long Silica Sand from trademe is pretty cheap, but depends on shipping I guess. I found it more of a pain to vacuum gravel than cleaning sand, I just use a siphon hose off a gravel vac, and skim just above the surface of the sand. You do lose some, but it looks so good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted April 24, 2012 Report Share Posted April 24, 2012 I've used West Coast black sand, East Coast play sand (both from Landscape Supplies shops and about $10 for more kilos than I can lift) and silica sand (from petshops) and they were all fine for my purposes. Of gravel I've got midnight fine gravel in one tank and have used brightwater and autumn harvest type gravels previously. Petshops are the easiest for small pea sized gravels as the landscape supplies shops tend to only go as small as about $2 coin sized. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LYNDYLOO Posted April 24, 2012 Report Share Posted April 24, 2012 I've got a 25kg bag of White Silica Sand here, you can have it for $25, my boy's up there most days, so I could give it to him to drop off to you if your interested Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#!CrunchBang Posted April 24, 2012 Report Share Posted April 24, 2012 Large sand or small gravel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Li@m Posted April 25, 2012 Report Share Posted April 25, 2012 I have both :thup: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Posted April 25, 2012 Report Share Posted April 25, 2012 Sand looks great, but it is really annoying to remove if you want to remove it - it compacts like hell, which is why I don't use it. Not saying its bad though. Heaps of people use it and love it. I do use it in terracotta pots to cap over the peat and JBL clay balls for my plants, so I only use like a handful per pot. But as a base substrate for a tank personally I don't like it. I prefer gravel. Really fine gravel or coarse sand would be the go Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisP Posted April 25, 2012 Report Share Posted April 25, 2012 Joe has put it well, Sand does look much nicer (in my opinion), but gravel is far more practical. I personally have used sand for quite a while, and still much prefer it. I haven't had any problems with it. You do suck up small amounts when siphoning, but when you siphon you can hold the end of the hose about an inch over the sand and it will only get waste and not sand. You can use Malaysian Trumpet Snails to help aerate and stop the sand from compacting as much, but snails can and often do take over a tank. Sand is very cheap. You can get playsand or (I had) "Fine Sand" from mitre 10 mega. Cost $8 for 20kg or something. It had a nice natural yellow look to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted April 27, 2012 Report Share Posted April 27, 2012 preferred your old name! Also - I remember this day! :slfg: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim r Posted April 27, 2012 Report Share Posted April 27, 2012 I mix silica sand with beach sand and I think it looks fantastic in all my tanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belgianbiscuit Posted May 11, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 11, 2012 Has anyone used Dalton's decorative pebbles? It has pumice in it so not sure if that is ok? Can't find anything I want in pet shop or I don't wanna pay what they charge. $38 for 10 kg is crazy. Any alternatives I can find around Palmy? Maybe in garden shops? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted May 11, 2012 Report Share Posted May 11, 2012 Daltons sand from palmers is good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belgianbiscuit Posted May 11, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 11, 2012 Thanks Phoenix, I am still leaning towards gravel as it seems sand is just more work but more than anything I want to start cycling my fish tank this weekend. Been waiting long enough now :-) I have a bag of this sitting in the garage now http://www.daltons.co.nz/home-gardening/retail-products/decorative-aggregates-and-pebbles/fine-decorative-pebble Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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