Once I started upsizing in freshwater, I used the pea gravel from Lowes in all my tanks. I lucked up a couple of times and went in when they had damaged bags and paid less than $1 per bags. Once the bags get a hole in them, Lowes marks them down. Most of the time there is little to no lose of gravel from the bags.
When I set up my BC29 as freshwater at work, I used the pea gravel again. I switched to a very fine grained rock (I believe Nature's Ocean markets. It Is very natural looking, but small.) when I moved the tank location at work. I kept these small gravel when I downsized to an Evolve 8. It looks great in that tank. I only switched to this because one of my LFS had extra left from selling a tank and gave it to me.
Getting back on topic. You can't beat the deal on the pea gravel from Lowes. I believe you can actually buy gravel like it online for aquariums at a lot higher price. It may just not have all the sand, but for the price difference, especially when you luck up like I did and get damaged bags for less than $1, rinising is worth it.
When I set up my BC29 as freshwater at work, I used the pea gravel again. I switched to a very fine grained rock (I believe Nature's Ocean markets. It Is very natural looking, but small.) when I moved the tank location at work. I kept these small gravel when I downsized to an Evolve 8. It looks great in that tank. I only switched to this because one of my LFS had extra left from selling a tank and gave it to me.
Getting back on topic. You can't beat the deal on the pea gravel from Lowes. I believe you can actually buy gravel like it online for aquariums at a lot higher price. It may just not have all the sand, but for the price difference, especially when you luck up like I did and get damaged bags for less than $1, rinising is worth it.
