Any suggestions on gravel color?

[BAT]

Hi Nerms,

I want to change up this tank. See pic. 
I unearthed the plants for a recent move and then decided I liked the look. Hence why they are floating. And I must say that the plants seem to be thriving and the fish seem to like the cover. 
 

any suggestions for gravel color change? Also should I get smooth gravel for the Cory to root in? They have seemed OK w this gravel. 
 

thanks!

[lefty o]

for color, you really have to go with what appeals to your eye. i myself like either a natural river run type gravel or if i go color, i mix 3/4 dark blue with 1/4 black.

[Guest]

What ever makes you happy. I like an aquasoil/sand mix look or a Sand/rive-rocks kinda natural style, but its all on you! I really dislike gravel because of its odd coloration and I personally love everything to match, and gravel makes me pretty annoyed when it seems almost unmatchable with the scape I'm going for/planning. 

But I like more foresty, river, or beach or river shore kinda scapes! Whatever floats your boat.

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/16/2023 at 8:19 AM, BAT said:

I unearthed the plants for a recent move

I totally needed coffee before trying to process what I was looking at. 😂

I think there's a few things going on and it's likely a good idea to really take a step back and think about what you want the tank to be.

A.  If you just want the fish to be happy, you can use sand and leave it at that.  Root tabs can be used, for some of the plants you have, but it's going to (potentially) limit some options for you.

B.  If you want something like dark substrate, there is a lot of products out there that are made for planted tanks and do have normal, fine, extra fine particle sizes.  this would help with fish like corydoras and work well long term in a planted tank.  I would suggest controsoil fine with a layer on top of "extra fine".  This gives you the ability to do a carpeting plant pretty easy if you wish to.  If you don't then A or C might be better for you and using something inert.

C.  You can use anything you really want to use, visually, and just remove a section to have a sand area for feeding the fish in question.  This is pretty typical and it's entirely up to what you want to do.

If you had sand, what color sand would you want?  If you had one color substrate, what color(s) would it be?

Edited November 16, 2023 by nabokovfan87

[Guest]

@nabokovfan87 I just saw this post and would like to add on, that I think sand personally looks nice in small amounts, or just as the top substrate layer entirely if the look can be mastered. A white or yellowy beach colored sand also works and looks really good. Maybe a black sand aquasoil layering would look full as well. Just my two cents.

Good luck to you and your tank @BAT!

[Kit Craft]

You have a fair number of large snails (so do I) and I would personally avoid bare tan/white sand. It shows tons of waste, particularly with large snails. You can top layer gravel vac, spot clean with a turkey baster and all that but it still looks bad to me. Which is why I capped my already existing sand tanks with pea gravel. Very, very light layer. Time will tell how that works out for me. Were I to do it again I might go with black sand. Or I saw a video where Cory used coarse sand, which looked like really, really fine gravel. 

As for gravel, I pay $3.99 a bag for pea gravel. It looks natural but I think I would have preferred some more yellows/browns or solid grey rather than the mix I got. Might just be the batch I got. The "river" rock looked better. If I could find crushed, not decomposed, granite that wasn't laced with bacteria and vegetable oil, I'd use that. I suppose some sort of Florite grey or black would mimic. 

As for planting and substrates I find sand to be hard to plant in. When I let go of the roots, they float right back up 50% of the time. That could be my inexperience.

Whatever works for you is the best bet. You have to look at it regularly! 

[Matt B]

There are soooo many options!  It really is what makes you happy when you look at it. 

I personally have always enjoyed a river rock look and have started leaning towards smaller sized gravels. 

It's always cool to see what everyone does amd will be cool to see what you do.  

[BAT]

thanks to everyone for such great ideas!!!!

[Tanked]

If you investigate the pea gravel idea, shop around.  Different vendors source their gravel from different places.  Take your water bottle, gravel looks different when wet.

@Matt B I'd love to switch to Horticultural Sand if I could find it at pea gravel prices.  I like the Pool Filter sand, but it does show the dirt.

[nabokovfan87]

I know the common complaint about sand will be it showing the waste. It also makes it really easy to tell when you need a good siphon. Often more than you would think. I can show you what visually looks clean, but I know it has a ton of gunk in the sand itself. Same applies to any other substrate.

Choose what you visually enjoy and just put the work in to make yourself happy with it.

[Kit Craft]

On 11/17/2023 at 10:32 AM, Tanked said:

If you investigate the pea gravel idea, shop around.  Different vendors source their gravel from different places.  Take your water bottle, gravel looks different when wet.

@Matt B I'd love to switch to Horticultural Sand if I could find it at pea gravel prices.  I like the Pool Filter sand, but it does show the dirt.

Yes, this for sure. Kolorscape, for example, has awful color pea gravel imo. It looks great in the bag but not after you rinse it. 

 

[BAT]

What do people think of small glass pebbles made for aquarium as substrate?

[Guppysnail]

On 11/25/2023 at 11:43 AM, BAT said:

What do people think of small glass pebbles made for aquarium as substrate?

I would not use those personally. The spaces between are to large allowing a lot of food and debris to fall in between. The pieces are a bit large to appropriately vacuum that debris back out.