Which substarte?

Hello!


I am slowly siphoning the sand out of my tank at water changes because im finding its compacting and is to hard to keep clean. I'm was just wondering what the best substrate would be to replace it with.

I have,

A) Dorset pea gravel, Nice looking but I've heard it can rise pH which I DON'T want.

B) Natural gravel mix, quite large in size an very coarse.

C) Bare Bottom thinking about just leaving it bare for ease of cleaning.

What would you suggest is best?

Hello, I use silica sand and find it great for Ls as they can dig etc. Also find that it does not clog as much as normal sand as it is a little coarser. However with your 3 options, I think you already answered your own question.....go with what you think is best and that is num 3 :thumbup:. cheers jk

James16 said:

Hello!


I am slowly siphoning the sand out of my tank at water changes because im finding its compacting and is to hard to keep clean. I'm was just wondering what the best substrate would be to replace it with.

I have,

A) Dorset pea gravel, Nice looking but I've heard it can rise pH which I DON'T want.

B) Natural gravel mix, quite large in size an very coarse.

C) Bare Bottom thinking about just leaving it bare for ease of cleaning.

What would you suggest is best?

Click to expand...

If you have corys in there its a bit unfair to have it bare bottomed.

Thanks,

I have some panda corys, but im getting a roma 90/125 for christmas which i'll be setting up as a 'community' tank, so I'll move them before the sand is all gone, the tank in question is morphing into a 144 breeding tank.

James16 said:

Thanks,

I have some panda corys, but im getting a roma 90/125 for christmas which i'll be setting up as a 'community' tank, so I'll move them before the sand is all gone, the tank in question is morphing into a 144 breeding tank.

Click to expand...

There will be a lot of people on here who wont like it. But ive done it before. Its just so much easier to keep on top of things.

Hi all,
If the tank is planted and/or you have MTS sand is fine. You don't need to vacuum through it, just suck the poo and rubbish off the top. If you have a lot of flow you might find that fine gravel is better as the sand tends to blow around the tank. I always have a sponge on the intake for externals so sand in the filter isn't a problem for me. I now tend to mix coarse sand and fine gravel, and then the current deposits the sand in the areas where the flow is lower and leaves the gravel where there is more flow. If there is still a bare spot of glass on the bottom I put a rock, or some cobbles, there, so it is just like a real river.

I wouldn't go bare bottom unless you are really good at water management, as a substrate adds biological filtration potential and usually makes water parameters more stable. With bare bottom you also need to clean the bottom fairly regularly (with a green nylon scrim or similar).

I'd be cautious about using the "flint gravel" sold as "Ringwood" etc. as I found my sample had a a lot of pellets of chalk amongst the flint.

cheers Darrel