sand or gravel?

Just tried it and it works great. My bed is about 3 inches deep. I only did half of the tank just incase. I'll do the other half tomorrow. I don't think its been setup long enough to get gas pockets but can never be to safe.

I figure the places with plants are safe from gas pockets as they would use up anything around them before they were able to form.
 
:clap: I am very happy you guys found my technique useful! I love helping people.
 
Aquarob, I've been trying to decide what bottom to go with in my new 55g--lotsa planning--you've convinced me I can use sand successfully with your coathanger technique!! Thanka you so verra much!! True genius!!! :bowing: --r
 
I tell you what, man... I just started my first tank with sand, and boy... that thing is a pain to clean when you have about 10-12 plastic plants and two lava rocks in there! I'm using one of those battery-operated siphons with the little "sock" to strain stuff out, and that thing will jam up in a heart beat if you put it too close to the sand. Plus, since the sand is black, all of the flakes that make it down to the bottom end up looking kind of nasty.

In all honest opinion, when I upgrade tanks, I'm going back to gravel. I have reservations about how well my bichir will find his pellets in between the pebbles, but being able to just shove the siphon right down into the gravel and not have to worry about everything flying up into my siphon's impeller would be awesome, not to mention that I wanted to add a powerhead/UG filter system in there to keep it cleaner anyways would be awesome, too! Not knocking the sand... but for me... it's just not for me. :( Oh well....
 
I have black sand in two of my smaller aquariums and regular sand (pool filter) in my larger ones.

Black sand seems to bring out the colors of the fish in the aquarium and seems to stay on the bottom better when siphoning, but black sand is pricey and you can see fish crap easily.
 
rsandelius said:
pain to clean when you have about 10-12 plastic plants and two lava rocks in there! I'm using one of those battery-operated siphons with the little "sock" to strain stuff out, and that thing will jam up in a heart beat if you put it too close to the sand. Plus, since the sand is black, all of the flakes that make it down to the bottom end up looking kind of nasty.
Click to expand...

There's your 1st mistake, those things don't do well anyway. I just take the tube off my gravel cleaner and use it to siphon the overlooked food. Keep it about an inch off the sand and its perfect. I very rarely grab sand unless I look away to talk to one of my kids.

My tank is also planted not quite what I'd call heavily but will be as I add plants. They don't even get in my way,just work around them. The stems are a bit easier to work arounsd since I have clear viewing there.

My sand is beige, black or white just doesn't seem natural, nothing shows up to badly. Food just gets some kind of fuzzy mold on it if I let it sit to long.
 
wooh my project tank will be heavly planted with plastic plants, but they are all silliconed to the floor =]

If your worryed about moveing your plastic plants, go out and get some small suctioncups with a small lil hole in the middle for you to sillicone your plant to, after the sillicone cures just suctioncup it to the bottom and you wont have to hassle with it no more.
 
Yeah... I was hoping that having a battery-operated cleaner would make cleaning the tank sooooo much easier, when in fact, it's just complicated it (since it doesn't have enough suction). Maybe I WILL just start using the siphon hose end when I'm doing the water cycling. I will consider this to be my wake-up call... lol. Speaking of which...where's my coffee?....

(GREAT idea with the suction cups, btw!!!!!! Do you just glue-gun them onto the base of the plants? That'd work great, until I get gravel (and an undergravel filter) in my new tank....)
 
yeah, i glue them with aquarium safe sillicone to the tank when its empty, did this to my fry tank and soon the 20gal. low mainance is what im going for.
 
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