can the following be used as gravel?

I have some of those exact things in my betta's bowl and he has been alive for a long time. Then again betta's aren't very demanding so I don't know about a full on tank with other fish. anyway... bettas are a green light when it comes to those glass mancala game pieces :o
 
Yes, but you'll want to make sure you can easily clean it--larger particle substrates tend to allow waste to go deeper, where most filters won't get it, requiring more cleaning on your part. You'll also want to make sure it doesn't have any broken pieces that a fish could get cut on, especially if you're going to have bottom dwellers or substrate sifters.
 
OrionGirl said:
Yes, but you'll want to make sure you can easily clean it--larger particle substrates tend to allow waste to go deeper, where most filters won't get it, requiring more cleaning on your part. You'll also want to make sure it doesn't have any broken pieces that a fish could get cut on, especially if you're going to have bottom dwellers or substrate sifters.
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Uh oh...I love the look of larger rocks in the bottom..I got a bag of river rocks from lowes and while there are some pea size stones in there, most of them are larger than those little glass rocks people like to use in betta bowls. Will I be sorry if I use my river rocks?

Kim
 
Unless you have them over over-engineered RFUG with oversized or multiple pumps, IMHO and IME, you will regret it. Standard gravel-washer siphons are designed for use with standard aquarium gravel. Even the largest packaged aquarium gravels are difficult to vacuum well. If you go past that size, it is next to impossible in practice.
 
RTR said:
Unless you have them over over-engineered RFUG with oversized or multiple pumps, IMHO and IME, you will regret it. Standard gravel-washer siphons are designed for use with standard aquarium gravel. Even the largest packaged aquarium gravels are difficult to vacuum well. If you go past that size, it is next to impossible in practice.
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What is RFUG? And I know I must be wrong...so don't mind my dumb question, lol, but as long as the vacume could push the rocks around wouldn't it still suck up the gunk when moved around? I'm new...so I'm sure I'm not understanding something...

Kim
 
Kim, yes you could clean it. It would just mean that you have to dig down to the bottom of the tank and work to swirl the gravel vac around, to ensure that you get everything that falls under the large pieces. You'd likely have to push the rocks across to one side to get everything. It is definitely do-able, it just takes more work.

Of course, if we are talking about a small tank, the extra maintenance wouldn't be that big of a deal....but I wouldn't want to do it in anything over a 10g tank (and even then I may be too lazy to deal with it).

For a betta sized tank, no real harm done, IMO.

An RFUG is a reverse flow undergravel filter.
http://www.aquaria.info/modules.php?op=modload&name=FAQ&file=index&myfaq=yes&id_cat=3#q85

PS - Don't worry about asking "dumb" questions....there are only dumb answers.
 
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