Sand over gravel

[Oli]

I'm even worse as an influence. I did this in a couple of tanks recently, and just mixed in well rinsed sand with the existing gravel. I like the look.

The fish stayed in the tank, none the worse for the experience.

Hi Gary, is it possible for you to post a couple images so I can see what this could look like?

 

[GaryE]

I have 3 colours of sand from 2 nearby hardwares, and 4 different pool filter gravel types. It's always different, depending on what they sell locally, and how much you put in of each. I like a lighter sand with a darker gravel, but even there, I have dark grey and black gravel, and white and beige sand...

 

[Colin_T]

This sounds like what I was planning. I also thought it would be very stressful catching all the fish, they don’t seem that bothered when vacuuming gravel and moving things around in the tank. This seems like a similar level of stress, I was only worried about when someone mentioned pockets of ammonia, however I do disturb the substrate twice a week anyway so seems like it should be okay

If ammonia is coming from the substrate it will be from rotting food, dead fish or plants in the gravel. A regular gravel clean prevents this.

If you have lots of rotting organic matter in the substrate, it can go black and anaerobic (lacking oxygen), and this can lead to hydrogen sulfide bubbles coming out when you disturb it. However, this is rare in any tank and extremely uncommon in tanks that get gravel cleaned regularly.

I don't think you will have anything in the gravel to cause problems because you do regular gravel cleans.