My Journey Of The Substrate!

[JL94x4]

Hello all, so i had a small tank around 3 years ago (55 litres) which made me want a bigger tank, so around a year ago i got a new tank (260 litre)..... since getting the big tank ive been through a few substrates, before finding the perfect one for me. Heres my journey on finding the perfect substrate!!

So after my small tank always had a brownish coloured sand, i decided i wanted sand again, the sand in the small tank looked excellent, so i thought i'd stick buy it in the big tank. first stop was to go out and buy a couple of new bags for a total of £28. I felt this would be enough to cover the bottom, and then have replacement for everytime i cleaned the stuff of the sand (where i'd remove abit of sand uncontrollably). After a hard time getting the sand clean, and drying the sand then using the 'bottle method' (i'll post the bottle method vid at the end of the post) i left the tank a few days to clear up before i had the tanks substrate sorted....... or not!

1st Substrate (brownish sand)

(as you can see above the gravel is a large grain)

Now this sand was quite a large grained sand, this didn't bother me, the pic above was taken without the light and you can already see the sand looks really brown, maybe this is because its a larger surface area than the small tank ad on the small tank it looked really light.

Small tank (with same sand as above);

I bared with the sand in the new tank although when the light was on the tank looked a yellow/brownish colour as the light reflected off the sand and made the aquarium look.. very unfishy like sand. After several weeks i decided enough was enough and i had to do something about it! I then went for a gravel ive had for quite a while, a blue/white/blackish gravel. I changed the sand from the tank into gravel after quite a hard time getting the sand out.... below i finally accomplished it!

2nd Substrate (white/black/blue gravel)

Again though as time went on the tank just wasn't looking good to me, it made me want to keep the light off the tank 24/7 which is pretty pointless, i had the gravel in around 2-3months before i decided i needed a change, so i went out and looked at quite a few sands/gravels, but i told myself that i needed to have sand, as sand is a more natural substrate and of course because i keep corys, it'll help them strive! I went to my LFS where i got some pure white silica sand. This cost me £14 for two 5kg bags. So i proceeded to put this into the tank, as the sand was proven to not change the PH, or water chemistry i went ahead and did the change with fish in the tank, as the tank is already an established tank. 3 hours later and we have our new substrate!

3rd set of pictures with new Substrate (pure white silica sand)

So now im around 95% happy with the tank, even if the white is really strong, my question for anyone reading who may know the answer is.. does lighting affect how the sand looks? Im going to take a bit of sand out as i do think ive put slightly too much in, and i'll hope this tones down the brightness of it. Anyone looking at getting new substrate, make sure you 100% know you want it, its taken me many hours swapping and changing, and its not very good on the fish.. during the whole process i lost around 3 fish out of 23.

So has anyone else been through a similar process to me? What gravel did you end up sticking with in the end?

What is the bottle method for sand?

Thanks for reading, i appreciate it very much.

 

[KittyKat]

As a general trend (although with many tanks, it's been a bit more mixed up with experimenting):
- started with the traditional "Dorset pea gravel" (ok, but kinda messy and needed lots of cleaning)
- then mixed in sand with gravel (much better for cleaning, and fish dug around in it)
- white sand (decided to see what all the hype was about, and boy does it get dirty! also some fish try to blend in with the white)
- fine black gravel (nice, but the fish look too dark)
- and finally, settled on my all time favourite, mixed sand

I tend to use sharp sand with other sands mixed in to get the right colour. For example, my main display tank is current 75% sharp sand (plain) with 25% (rich redy-brown) plastering sand, giving a more "natural", varied appearance. Another tank that I'm quite happy with has all sharp play sand which has a dark gold hue.

I can definitely say that my preference is towards "natural" substrates, and has always been, although I have experimented with others too. Seeing any bright colours always makes me want to cringe, but at the end of the day, as long as the substrate is suitable for the fish in question, it's down to what each one of us likes to look at.

 

[KkAaNnEe]

Lol, well at least you've settled on something now. I do think that the background has something to do with it aswell, in the first pic you have the blue background, which is a bit of a contrast, I prefer the no background (I don't have one on my tank either) I feel it makes the tank look crisp and more importantly cleannnn

 

[JL94x4]

Lol, well at least you've settled on something now. I do think that the background has something to do with it aswell, in the first pic you have the blue background, which is a bit of a contrast, I prefer the no background (I don't have one on my tank either) I feel it makes the tank look crisp and more importantly cleannnn

Im the same, the background was just to hide the wires, ive seen some nice 3D backgrounds that look like rockery so im thinking of going for one of them. Not 100% Decided yet though.

Just glad the substrate is out of the way now!

 

[KkAaNnEe]

Lol, well at least you've settled on something now. I do think that the background has something to do with it aswell, in the first pic you have the blue background, which is a bit of a contrast, I prefer the no background (I don't have one on my tank either) I feel it makes the tank look crisp and more importantly cleannnn

Im the same, the background was just to hide the wires, ive seen some nice 3D backgrounds that look like rockery so im thinking of going for one of them. Not 100% Decided yet though.

Just glad the substrate is out of the way now!

If the side of your tank isnt on show I just tape my wires to it.

3D is really nice just a bit of a committment

 

[KittyKat]

On the other hand, I can't stand seeing no backgrounds almost as much as I dislike the planted tank shot printout ones because to me, those two options look very messy. I like to see plain, dark backgrounds (black, or just off black) or realistic-looking 3D backbrounds.

 

[KkAaNnEe]

On the other hand, I can't stand seeing no backgrounds almost as much as I dislike the planted tank shot printout ones because to me, those two options look very messy. I like to see plain, dark backgrounds (black, or just off black) or realistic-looking 3D backbrounds.

Then again I suppose I do have a background in the sense that it is a white wall behind the tank, black backgrounds always seem to make the tank look like it lacks depth to me

 

[JL94x4]

Ive heard of putting black bags as the background, whats it look like though?

 

[Aqua Tom]

Lol, well at least you've settled on something now. I do think that the background has something to do with it aswell, in the first pic you have the blue background, which is a bit of a contrast, I prefer the no background (I don't have one on my tank either) I feel it makes the tank look crisp and more importantly cleannnn

Im the same, the background was just to hide the wires, ive seen some nice 3D backgrounds that look like rockery so im thinking of going for one of them. Not 100% Decided yet though.

Just glad the substrate is out of the way now!

A background is kind of a nessesity (spelling?) with most fish as it makes them feel more secure.


Tpm

 

[KittyKat]

Ive heard of putting black bags as the background, whats it look like though?

If you get thin black ones, one layer is a black and dark brown job. I did a double layer one for my newest display (so I did not cut the bag in half), and it was a real pain to do. Next time, I'll just buy a glossy one to save on the hassle. Also, it's quite difficult to get all the creases out of the bin bag, I found.

 

[JL94x4]

Ive heard of putting black bags as the background, whats it look like though?

If you get thin black ones, one layer is a black and dark brown job. I did a double layer one for my newest display (so I did not cut the bag in half), and it was a real pain to do. Next time, I'll just buy a glossy one to save on the hassle. Also, it's quite difficult to get all the creases out of the bin bag, I found.

Id probably put a towel over the bin bag and run an iron over the towel, that should work to get the creases out. I still think it'll be a nightmare, too though.

Stick on backrounds don't really do it for me as they look rather dull. If you splashed abit of water on it first it looks really bright and good, but once the water dries out its pretty pointless and goes back to normal.

 

[KkAaNnEe]

Lol, well at least you've settled on something now. I do think that the background has something to do with it aswell, in the first pic you have the blue background, which is a bit of a contrast, I prefer the no background (I don't have one on my tank either) I feel it makes the tank look crisp and more importantly cleannnn

Im the same, the background was just to hide the wires, ive seen some nice 3D backgrounds that look like rockery so im thinking of going for one of them. Not 100% Decided yet though.

Just glad the substrate is out of the way now!

A background is kind of a nessesity (spelling?) with most fish as it makes them feel more secure.


Tpm

Im not sure that its true, and as I said i have a white wall 2 inches from the tank, its not much different to having a background on. Im not sure how anyone could prove whether or not fish feel more secure with a background, theres no background on the front but they are ok with this?

 

[KittyKat]

Im not sure that its true, and as I said i have a white wall 2 inches from the tank, its not much different to having a background on. Im not sure how anyone could prove whether or not fish feel more secure with a background, theres no background on the front but they are ok with this?

I think Tom means a "usual" background, which tends to be on the dark side. It is actually not too difficult to do comparisons on how fish act with different backgrounds, but most of us do not have the space, nor the stock to experiment with. For example, if fish feel insecure, they are more likely to be pale, stay close to the ground or plants, go into hiding as soon as anyone walks into the room/past the tank.
I have seen enough evidence that I can confidently say that darker backgrounds do help the average fish feel more secure.

 

[Aqua Tom]

Im not sure that its true, and as I said i have a white wall 2 inches from the tank, its not much different to having a background on. Im not sure how anyone could prove whether or not fish feel more secure with a background, theres no background on the front but they are ok with this?

I think Tom means a "usual" background, which tends to be on the dark side. It is actually not too difficult to do comparisons on how fish act with different backgrounds, but most of us do not have the space, nor the stock to experiment with. For example, if fish feel insecure, they are more likely to be pale, stay close to the ground or plants, go into hiding as soon as anyone walks into the room/past the tank.
I have seen enough evidence that I can confidently say that darker backgrounds do help the average fish feel more secure.

Thankyou for putting my inane rambling into contex.

That is exactly what I was trying to say.


Tom

 

[KkAaNnEe]

Im not sure that its true, and as I said i have a white wall 2 inches from the tank, its not much different to having a background on. Im not sure how anyone could prove whether or not fish feel more secure with a background, theres no background on the front but they are ok with this?

I think Tom means a "usual" background, which tends to be on the dark side. It is actually not too difficult to do comparisons on how fish act with different backgrounds, but most of us do not have the space, nor the stock to experiment with. For example, if fish feel insecure, they are more likely to be pale, stay close to the ground or plants, go into hiding as soon as anyone walks into the room/past the tank.
I have seen enough evidence that I can confidently say that darker backgrounds do help the average fish feel more secure.

Thankyou for putting my inane rambling into contex.

That is exactly what I was trying to say.


Tom

Thanks for trying to explain Toms post, I understand what you mean, but from my experience there has been no differences in colouration, confidence etc. Also there are plenty of double sided tanks such as room dividers that dont suffer any ill effects, I think a background would help if the tank was very open, but usually there are enough hiding spots and cover for them. So I think in conclusion I can say that it benefits certain setups and fish, but a neccessity? Not really...?