In the final stages of filling my recent 180g steal and am trying to decide on the type of gravel to put in the bottom of it. I have seen some black rounded gravel at one of the home depot type stores locally that I like. It is rather largeish at up to 1 3/4" in diameter. I don't think it will be out of scale due to the size of the tank but am told by a local that I need to use smaller gravel to promote bacterial growth. Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.
Selecting gravel for an Angelfish tank
- Thread starter femurphy77
- Start date
The bacteria thing can be taken care of by your filter and the sheer amount of surface in a gravel bed that size. The real issue I see with it is figuring out how to clean it. Any uneaten food, and there inevitably is some, will fall down between the individual rocks and be out of reach of any gravel vac or similar tool. It strikes me that it would be a royal PITA to clean that gravel and remove the rotting food.
The problem isnt growing bacteria (most reside in the filter media) but as OldMan said, cleaning it. That diameter seems too large to me.
I would go with a smaller grade size of gravel. If you want to stock with angels, they will need a lot of water changes and are picky about their water conditions. Cleaning needs to be easy and efficient as well as quick when keeping these kind of fish to keep the stress level of the fish down. For that reason alone, I would choose a smaller size gravel or even possibly sand for the angels.
Marinemom
Marinemom
Alright, looks like I'm going to be giving sand the nod. The girlfriend has been reading enough to know that "hey, know we can put in some REAL plants!!"
you can use sand or you can use ecocomplete(tho spendier than sand)
angles are fairly stout fish and a good maint schedule helps to keep them healthy.
planted tank can be more stable..as trhe plants will help with ammonia and nitrates.
plants will help as angles love to hide behind the plants and they will feel more comfortable. add structure like driftwood.
have fun.
angles are fairly stout fish and a good maint schedule helps to keep them healthy.
planted tank can be more stable..as trhe plants will help with ammonia and nitrates.
plants will help as angles love to hide behind the plants and they will feel more comfortable. add structure like driftwood.
have fun.
O.k. confusion is setting in; I am reading a book right now, can't think of the title or author this early in the morning, something like "Aquariums for Dummies". Anyway it says avoid sand like the plague due to lack of circulation thru the sand, packs up hard, promotes bad bacteria etc. What gives? Several of the display tanks at the LFS have sand bottoms but now that I am slightly more knowledgeable I know enough to know they really don't care very much about the well-being of the tanks occupants. Several btdt stories above extoll the virtues of sand, can you expand on that a little?