Which Do You Prefer Sand Or Gravel?

[MarkR]

I get my new tank tomorrow and after doing a lot of research on this forum I have decided I will be putting sand in in preference to gravel.

I thought I would start a poll just to see what stats come back on the preference to sand or gravel. B)

 

[modernhamlet]

This poll/thread/argument comes up about once a week here.

There's no way to say one's better than the other. It really depends on your fish, plants, aesthetic goals, filtration method, etc. etc...

 

[MarkR]

Thanks for the heads up modernhamlet but I did a search before posting this Poll and I could only find 3 polls on this subject in the last year, 3 of which do not display the results due to errors.

 

[debiasir]

i prefer gravel i have decided

had a manic weekend last week changed from gravel to sand a day later the sand was so so dirty and hard to clean i swapped back to gravel.

 

[WILDER]

Only thing that has stopped me geting sand, it that you can see the mess on it, but i do think it looks nicer.

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

I use mostly sand and prefer it with all my catfish. But it can look messy very quickly. It can take extra effort to keep clean and stop compacting and ending up with icky patches. MTS's help with it but they can only do so much. Despite all my efforts I still get patches in my tanks that look dirty and without tearing the tank apart it's not possible to reach them all. So it really comes down to what you want. A show tank or one that is designed to mimic the natural enviroment more. No way is right or wrong. I do find live plants do much better in sand tho.
Hugs,
P.

 

[TF Keeper UK]

I did have gravel but changed to sand 6 weeks ago. I used too much and suffered compaction and dark spots.

Reduced amount of sand to a thin layer, got myself a external pump and hey presto, no compaction, dark spots or funky smell!

Cleaning is easy and my catfish love it!

Del

 

[randalthor]

i prefer gravel i have decided

had a manic weekend last week changed from gravel to sand a day later the sand was so so dirty and hard to clean i swapped back to gravel.

Ha

I doubt it is worse than my pure white gravel.

 

[Synirr]

Oh God, I'll never go back to gravel in my larger tanks. Sand is soooooooo much easier to keep clean, and I don't normally notice it looking dirty. It just looks more natural that way
It helps that my filters tend to push all the poo and such under the plants where it can't be easily seen.

 

[MarkR]

I am picking up my new tank today as well as buying accesories from my LFS. Can you buy sand from your LFS, wasn't sure if this is a commonly stocked item or not?

 

[MarkR]

Just found out that they do.

 

[imouse]

Sand every time.

A good sand to use is the playsand available from Argos 15kg, £2.49 non toxic too. This sand doesn't compact like river sands do.



mouse

 

[MarkR]

Thanks imouse, how long did it take you to clean it?

And is it light or dark?

 

[!Gina]

i'm switching to sand soon also, it just looks more natural, and apparently its easier to maintain.

 

[Twobeards]

I used sand for 10 years and will never go back! For me it was much easier to clean gravel and with gravel I can actually get the bottom of the tank under the gravel clean as with sand there was no way with out vaccuming 1/2 of it out and then the sand played havoc with my filters. Sand was just to much hassell for me!!! JMHO Jimmy