# sand or gravell



## piranha303 (May 7, 2006)

out of sand or gravell which do u guys prefer, i currently have gravel but i want to go buy some sand tonight. anybody have sand can u tell me how its working out!!!


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## meateater311 (Sep 3, 2007)

love my sand. get trumpet snails if your going to plant it...debris does show up more on the surface but makes it easier to clean with a light vac


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## -NBKK- (Jun 22, 2007)

i have been wondering the same question myself. so it is more easy to clean with the vac then gravel ? and how many inches high do you have it ?


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## igotaweinerdog (Jul 16, 2007)

I have both and love my sand tank and want to switch my gravel tank to sand


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## Dezboy (Apr 2, 2006)

sand IMO looks so so m uich better but i find it such a pain in the ass to clean and maintian,
Gravel IMO doesnt look as nice but i find iteasy to clean...............


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## vinizuh (Apr 1, 2007)

when cleaning, you will most likey end up sucking some amounts of sand up and if you wanna put it back you'd have to use a bucket then rinse the sand and put it back into the tank which mean you'd probably want to unplug you're filters if you dont want sand in it. unlike gravel where you can just use a python and lead it to a drain with no buckets needed.

on the plus side if you have good current, waste tends to be pushed onto one side of the tank so thats the only spot you'd have to concentrate on. but with gravel you'd have to stir up the whole tank floor.

i changed from gravel to sand and the looks of it is well worth it.


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## jestergraphics (May 29, 2007)

I have sand in all my tanks and love, yes it shows EVERYTHING as far as waist but on the flip side it keeps you on a good cleaning schedule (unless you like a dirty looking tank)which keeps your fish happy! After a few times you'll get the hang of cleaning it so you don't suck up 5lbs of sand on every vacuume; and cleaning is quicker IMO with sand- there's nothing to stir up to make sure you got everything its all right in front of you IME sand has cut vacuuming time by 75% easily.. Then as somebody else mentioned if you get your powerhead(s) positioned right you'll see you can get all your "waist" gathered in 1 spot which makes it even easier for maintenance.....and yes the natural look of sand speaks for itself comparred to gravel.


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## eddyhead (Nov 6, 2007)

jestergraphics said:


> I have sand in all my tanks and love, yes it shows EVERYTHING as far as waist but on the flip side it keeps you on a good cleaning schedule (unless you like a dirty looking tank)which keeps your fish happy! After a few times you'll get the hang of cleaning it so you don't suck up 5lbs of sand on every vacuume; and cleaning is quicker IMO with sand- there's nothing to stir up to make sure you got everything its all right in front of you IME sand has cut vacuuming time by 75% easily.. Then as somebody else mentioned if you get your powerhead(s) positioned right you'll see you can get all your "waist" gathered in 1 spot which makes it even easier for maintenance.....and yes the natural look of sand speaks for itself comparred to gravel.


What kind of sand do you use? like Playground sand?


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## maddyfish (Sep 16, 2006)

I like gravel.After my JD spit sand into the intake of my emporer 400 until it locked up, I got sick of fooling with sand.


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## jestergraphics (May 29, 2007)

eddyhead said:


> I like gravel.After my JD spit sand into the intake of my emporer 400 until it locked up, I got sick of fooling with sand.


yeah that would be a pain in the ass, I dealt with that way back when when I put my intakes too close to the bottom.


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## Apps (Oct 27, 2006)

I'm thinking of switching to sand when I set up my new 125 gallon tank. Just wondering if anyone knows how many bags of sand I would need?


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## Trystan (Jan 2, 2006)

I love the way that sand looks. All of my tanks are sand and I would never even consider going back to gravel.



Apps said:


> I'm thinking of switching to sand when I set up my new 125 gallon tank. Just wondering if anyone knows how many bags of sand I would need?


I used 160 lbs of sand to do my 130 gal tank.

Trystan


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## ZOSICK (May 25, 2005)

black sand


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## fishguy1313 (Feb 19, 2007)

I love the look of sand, but hear it is hard to maintain. Good luck!


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## viralmouser (Apr 28, 2007)

I have black sand all the way.


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## AJerman (Nov 7, 2007)

I actually have my RBP in my first sand tank. I've always had gravel and wanted to try something new, so I got sand this time. I personally really like the look of it. The only problem is that cleaning kicks up a lot of the sand and makes it harder to do the whole process, but I'm sure that with more experience you can minimize this. I don't know if most people prefer to take their fish out when they clean or not. When I grew up my mom never did when she cleaned her tanks. When I cleaned my sand the first time I didn't take the fish out and it kicked up a lot of sand killing a couple of Neons that were in there. I would say it's probably a lot easier to clean taking out the fish (not to mention safer for your hands when if you have full sized piranhas), if that's the case then it's not really a big deal, just take them out, kill the filter, clean it and leave it for an hour or two to settle down, then you can re-add the fish with no problem.

I think when I get my new tank in a month or so I'm going to try Tahitian Moon black sand like viralmouser said. I think that would look amazing not to mention it wouldn't show waste on the bottom as much and it would reflect light less which should make piranhas happier.


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## viralmouser (Apr 28, 2007)

yea I noticed that my p's really like the black sand and with it being black they just like it better. I still wouldn't take my P's out though because of stress and you shouldn't be so worried about them biting you.


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## AJerman (Nov 7, 2007)

viralmouser said:


> yea I noticed that my p's really like the black sand and with it being black they just like it better. I still wouldn't take my P's out though because of stress and you shouldn't be so worried about them biting you.


You think? I thought that a lot of people on here did take them out. I would have thought that it would be more stressful on them to stay in with the vacuum in the water, the sand kicked up, and the adjustment time for the new water added which isn't likely to perfectly match your current water and will almost certainly cool the tank a little.

However, with a bigger fish like a fully grown piranha, they can probably handle the sand being kicked up. I'd be more worried about little guys like baby piranhas or my neons that didn't fare so well during the process. Even with my little RBP that is just a couple of months old and maybe 2.5", he was a little lethargic but seemed just fine after everything was settled down.

As for biting you, I know they really normally shouldn't, and I've stuck my hand all the way to the bottom of my tank to re-seat a plant when my little guy was in his log and I couldn't even see him, but let me tell you how fast my hand would have shot out of that water if he'd even poked his head out. I'm still getting used to how they act so I'll probably get better eventually.


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## Ihavebigpiranha (Aug 19, 2004)

why do you stir your sand? the fish waste all stays on top of it you just need to use the vacuum to suck up the crap and that's all then you can drain from higher up.


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## geo20 (Dec 13, 2007)

i have a little mix between both and i love it! sort or like white rocks chopped up to little pieces with a kkick of a few other colors. looks great!


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## mike123 (Jul 17, 2006)

i like gravel better


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