Substrate Arrrrrrrr What To Use

[Hermithall]

It's up to the individual in the end, and I prefer gravel. You can grow plants in gravel for sure. Argos playsand made my fish have washed out colours as it was a very pale batch and looked garish and unnatural under my lighting. Also, every bit of debris showed up on the surface. I found it was way more fiddly to vacumn than gravel - you can churn gravel around and deep clean the mulm from it to your heart's content.
I found the opposite was true to one of the above comments about sculpting. My experience with sand was that it went completely flat within 24 hours of sculpting it, whereas gravel retains it's aquascaping way longer.
Finer gravels can give a sandy look and retain the robust qualities that gravel has. Pea grit is cheap and very natural looking and Pettex gravel comes in a large range of choices and is also quite fine.

 

[This Old Spouse]

You can grow plants in sand just fine. The sand I have now is play sand and looks much more like beach sand from a lake. And, my cory love it.

 

[mtbdean]

I have 3mm Dorset Pea Gravel, nice and easy to scape, fine enough for the Cory's and easy to clean!

 

[Spurry]

Argos have 3 for 2 on play sand at the mo, so I have 3 bags but I'm also going to use some gravel round the rocks

 

[Spurry]

whats the best way to add sand if your tank is full of water??

 

[Tizer]

if you have cleaned the sand in a bucket, and the water runs clear then just turn off your filter and scoop it in with a plastic jug.

 

[Spurry]

if you have cleaned the sand in a bucket, and the water runs clear then just turn off your filter and scoop it in with a plastic jug.

cheers thought as much just didnt want it to go every where

 

[This Old Spouse]

Depends on how much sand you're talking about. For just filling in some spots, I used a turkey baster with wet sand. If larger amounts, just use a drinking glass or measuring cup and put it in very slowly. Wet, rinsed sand works best.

 

[Katch]

Do it during a water change as well. Drop the water level to 40% or so and make sure your filters are off (sand sucked in will destroy impellers).

Just add it a handfull at a time carefully. Let each hand settle a bit before moving on.

 

[Spurry]

cheers thanks for the advice. im guessing though if needed you can get spares for the fluval filters?

 

[Katch]

cheers thanks for the advice. im guessing though if needed you can get spares for the fluval filters?

Yes but sand could damage the head itself. This is an expensive thing to replace so best keep the sand out.

 

[Spurry]

okely dokely