Sand Vs Gravel? Yes, this conversation again. Lol

[MarsFlower819]

Hello!

So, I am sure this question is asked a lot.
Well, I want to ask it again, Sorry!

So, my one of 10 gallon and my 55 gallon has sand. My other 10 gallon has gravel, well river rock.
So I had both in the past, and now in the present, getting back into the hobby. As of now I am planning on a few more tanks, (Some as large as a 200 gallon) some that I have up and with the water running, and I honestly don’t know what to choose. It’s a hard decision for me.

I don’t know exactly what fish I plan on putting in the tanks, I have ideas, but nothing solid yet.

Are there any tricks or tips about cleaning sand or something, that I missed, that makes it easier to clean?

Compare:
I like the look of sand better, but to me, gravel is easier to clean.
My cories love sand, but my loaches love the gravel.
Sand gets everywhere, but I am always scared one of the animals will get hurt on the gravel.
Sand can get in the filter easier, gravel has less chance to.

Same:
Both have to be cleaned really well before put in tank.
Both can make it hard to see the fish.
Sand and Gravel can look dirty all the time

Needs:
I want to be able to see my fish, so nothing where they blend in too much.
Easy to clean.
Not expensive.

Things I DON’T Need or Care about:
Live Plants. I don’t care about being able to grow live plants. It isn’t important to me, I don’t prefer live plants.


IF I choose Sand; Should I get Black or a lighter color?
I have black in one fish tank, and it makes it hard to see my darker and smaller fish. But easier to see my albinos.
I have whiteish sand in the other, and it's fine, but not my favorite. But I can see my fish better.


So what are all of your guys opinions on this topic?
And what do you think I should us?
Any advice on which is technically better?

Thank you for any tips and advice!

 

[JuiceBox52]

Sand is best in my opinion, much easier to clean, gunk just sits on the top and easily vacuumed up by hovering over the bottom.
Sand allows more stocking options
And I like the look better

 

[Essjay]

The colour - a medium colour is best for fish.
White can stress them as few fish have evolved to live over white sand and it makes them stand out to that bird predator lurking just out of sight (they don't know there isn't one); and it reflects light back into the tank, which fish don't 'expect'.
Very dark causes some fish to try to 'blend in' and go darker which can also stress them.

 

[Byron]

The substrate does matter to fish. First, the colour...white and black should always be avoided as both stress fish, they are unnatural. Having said that, the black would work better for some fish, but not for substrate fish which will attempt to darked in order to blend in, and that is stressful. White is bad for all fish unless you can somehow cover the entire substrate to darked it, which doesn't make much sense when you can use a natural sand/gravel.

Sand or fine gravel, even pea gravel, can be authentic for specific habitats. Central American and Mexican livebearers for example are right at home over gravel, and pea gravel works well here. But don't keep substrate fish in these tanks. Most aquatic habitats in the tropics have sand or dirt (mulm) as the substrate. Some watercourses may be rock, but there are often sand areas as well, or no substrate fish. So it really comes down to the fish, which you say you have not decided yet.

Cories and most loaches need sand. Some cichlids which feed from the substrate also need specific substrates.

After learning about sand I changed all my tanks over from fine gravel and never regretted it. I used Quikrete Play Sand (Lowe's, Home Depot) which is the most refined and therefore the safest industrial sand. There are also aquarium river sands, just make sure they are inert.

 

[Wills]

I think its better to start with sand, because if you start with gravel and a year or two down the line want Corys or Loaches you need to change the substrate.

There are no real downsides to sand, deadspots are the only slight issue but easy to keep on top of. Where as with gravel there are certain fish that you shouldnt keep on it, it can get super dirty and cause issues and IMO it just does not look natural to have a uniform bed of gravel so I prefer sand for that reason.

Wills

 

[Rocky998]

One word: SAAAAAAAAND

 

[sharkweek178]

I think its better to start with sand, because if you start with gravel and a year or two down the line want Corys or Loaches you need to change the substrate.

There are no real downsides to sand, deadspots are the only slight issue but easy to keep on top of. Where as with gravel there are certain fish that you shouldnt keep on it, it can get super dirty and cause issues and IMO it just does not look natural to have a uniform bed of gravel so I prefer sand for that reason.

Wills

I did this. I started with gravel and changed to sand. The thing I did was change it out a portion at a time (about one quarter of the substrate) to give the beneficial bacteria a chance to regrow on the new substrate that I added. I also left some of the gravel I was replacing in a mesh bag in the tank for a few days so as to not disrupt the cycle too much either. The final part of it was a pain because I wanted to sift through all of the sand to make sure I got all the gravel out.

 

[sharkweek178]

Hello!

So, I am sure this question is asked a lot.
Well, I want to ask it again, Sorry!

So, my one of 10 gallon and my 55 gallon has sand. My other 10 gallon has gravel, well river rock.
So I had both in the past, and now in the present, getting back into the hobby. As of now I am planning on a few more tanks, (Some as large as a 200 gallon) some that I have up and with the water running, and I honestly don’t know what to choose. It’s a hard decision for me.

I don’t know exactly what fish I plan on putting in the tanks, I have ideas, but nothing solid yet.

Are there any tricks or tips about cleaning sand or something, that I missed, that makes it easier to clean?

Compare:
I like the look of sand better, but to me, gravel is easier to clean.
My cories love sand, but my loaches love the gravel.
Sand gets everywhere, but I am always scared one of the animals will get hurt on the gravel.
Sand can get in the filter easier, gravel has less chance to.

Same:
Both have to be cleaned really well before put in tank.
Both can make it hard to see the fish.
Sand and Gravel can look dirty all the time

Needs:
I want to be able to see my fish, so nothing where they blend in too much.
Easy to clean.
Not expensive.

Things I DON’T Need or Care about:
Live Plants. I don’t care about being able to grow live plants. It isn’t important to me, I don’t prefer live plants.


IF I choose Sand; Should I get Black or a lighter color?
I have black in one fish tank, and it makes it hard to see my darker and smaller fish. But easier to see my albinos.
I have whiteish sand in the other, and it's fine, but not my favorite. But I can see my fish better.


So what are all of your guys opinions on this topic?
And what do you think I should us?
Any advice on which is technically better?

Thank you for any tips and advice!

I don't know if gravel actually is easier to clean. When I vacuumed gravel, it seemed like there was always bits of stuff coming up. No matter how much I vacuumed and how recent the last cleaning was. Granted, some of that was my fault for overfeeding. But stuff always fell through the gravel where I wouldn't get to it with the vacuum. With sand though, stuff doesn't fall through the sand. It remains on the surface where you can see it and vacuum it up. I got a turkey baster for spot cleaning in case I see fish waste, plant detritus or uneaten food sitting on the sand.
So I don't think gravel is actually easier to clean. It just hides the mess better. But the mess is still there, affecting water quality.

 

[Byron]

I came across something earlier this week that is instructive. It concerns cories over sand in the habitats. Some say it doesn't matter to the fish, but this evidence without a shadow of doubt again proves that is does matter. It comes from the paper describing the new Corydoradinae species Scleromystax reisi [my emphasis]:

Habitat and ecological notes (based on material from EEA-UFRGS). Scleromystax reisi was found mainly in very small (0.5-2 m wide) and shallow streams (30-60 cm depth), with slow current water and surrounded by relatively preserved riparian vegetation. The bottom was sandy, sometimes covered with a thin layer of mud or fallen leaves. Although there were rocky bottom stretches in the same creeks, the species was never found there. The streams may have a small amount of submerged vegetation. Other species collected along with Scleromystax reisi were Astyanax eigenmanniorum (Cope), Cheirodon interruptus (Jenyns), Corydoras paleatus (Jenyns), Heptapterus mustelinus (Valenciennes), H. sympterygium (Buckup), Mimagoniates inequalis (Eigenmann), Phalloceros caudimaculatus (Hensel), Pseudobunocephalus iheringii (Boulenger), Rhamdia sp. and Scleronema sp.​

Marcelo R. Britto, Clayton K. Fukakusa and Luiz R. Malabarba (2016), “New Species of Scleromystax Gunther, 1864 (Siluriformes: Callichthyidae) - extending the meriodonal distribution of genera endemic to the Atlantic Forest,” Neotropical Ichthyology 14 (3).

 

[dwalk77]

White can stress them as few fish have evolved to live over white sand and it makes them stand out to that bird predator lurking just out of sight (they don't know there isn't one); and it reflects light back into the tank, which fish don't 'expect'.

Wish I would have read this about 3 weeks ago

 

[outofwater]

Depends on the fish. I learned that cories need sand, so if you have those, you must have sand. Other than that, I still have both and like them both. I find neither easier or harder to clean. Other than the needs of rhe fish, plants are the other thing to keep in mind when selecting substrate (my 29g tank has sand, and my 10g tank has gravel).

If I could, I'd have a mixed media tank. With some sort of separator to ensure they don't mix. I might do that in the future.

 

[FishyJoe]

I put black sand in my son's 5g tank... we didn't know all the downsides of black sand. Originally, we had guppies in there. One died, so a couple of weeks later, we got another. The current inhabitant started getting aggressive with the new guppy we added, so we did a swap from of the aggressive guppy to my tank, and from my tank we put the cory in his tank (with the black sand).

So my question now is, what should I do about the black sand?
Should I add a thin layer of tan sand?
Start removing a little bit of black sand at a time (and over what interval and by how much), and then add tan sand?

 

[Rocky998]

Why is black sand bad?
I like it in certain set ups

 

[FishyJoe]

Why is black sand bad?
I like it in certain set ups

substrate does matter to fish. First, the colour...white and black should always be avoided as both stress fish, they are unnatural. Having said that, the black would work better for some fish, but not for substrate fish which will attempt to darked in order to blend in, and that is stressful.

Since I'm still learning, I'm taking from what I read here. According to Byron "black should always be avoided" "it will stress fish" "it is unnatural", and because my cory is mainly tan "fish which attempt to blend in cannot and that is stressful".

Sorry, not trying to offend Byron, but this is my take on that post. So is black sand OK for cories?

 

[Byron]

Black sand is not advisable with Corydoras, because they do not "expect" this and they become stressed by having to darken their pigmentation in order to blend in, which is their primary defense reaction--remain motionless and blend in with the substrate and the overhead predator will not see me! It is no coincidence that the basic body tone of so many cory species is buff/taupe...it is exactly the same tone as the sand these species live above. There is no other issue other than the above that I am aware of, and this would have much less impact on upper fish like guppies (I think white would be more likely to stress upper fish because it reflects light unnaturally).

Having said that, to your questions. Do you just have one cory? This is a very social fish and it needs a group around 10 (or more), so this needs to be thought through. As for changing the sand, if it is smooth fine sand I would probably leave it. You can add hardscape to break up the sand, chunks of wood, smooth rocks for example. Leave some open sand as this is where cories feed.

I would never mix different sands, this in my view never looks good, it is certainly unnatural, and it visually draws attention to the small space. The uniform substrate whatever it is will do the opposite, make the space seem larger. And, if the two types are sized differently, the smaller will drop to the bottom with the larger on top.