[Draco]

I am planning on setting up a sorority tank (10 gal) in the near future.

Looking at other people's tanks for ideas, I see some uses sand, and others uses gravel.

Which do you prefer, and why? What are pros and cons to one or the other?

[kelly528]

They are basically the same, unless you suck at cleaning sand like I do :laff:

Sometimes sand is cheaper because people use pool filter sand.

[Draco]

I am thinking of doing a combo of both.. and eventually using low-tech live plants.

[Slur]

I set up a 10 gallon sand tank about 2 months ago to try it out and i love it. I heard it was hard to maintain but its actually pretty easy . I use a turkey baster to suck up the big stuff that i can see on the sand bed and then do the water change , takes a lil bit longer than gravel but it is worth it.
Also my corys love rutting around in the sand .

Here my tank

2 pandas,3 albino corys , 5 ghost shrimp and my HMPK

http://i891.photobucket.com/albums/ac116/moderateslur/hmpk/tyler037.jpg

http://i891.photobucket.com/albums/ac116/moderateslur/tyler028.jpg

[kelly528]

Nice tank slur!

Be aware that if you combine a large-grade substrate with a smaller grade substrate, the smaller grade (ie sand) will eventually wind up on the bottom with the gravel on the top.

[Draco]

nice tank!

I was thinking the gravel, or maybe river rocks, along the sides and back, and the sand in the middle. If the sand flits beneath the larger, thats ok, at least its still in the general area

[Christina<3betta]

If you are planning on having other fish like cories in there, I would recommend sand. But personally, I like the look of gravel better, natural colored.

[kimm]

Once you try sand you never wanna go back :coverlaff: I think its great cause the debris strictly stays on the surface.

[Katzyn]

I use sand, too, and have for months now. I, too, love it. I use playsand - the tan sand you use in children's sandboxes. It's very dusty at first, but within a day or so (as long as you rinse it out well before you put in in the tank!), it settles down just fine. And as far as cleaning, I still use a gravel vacuum, but I don't get down deep in the sand of course - I just skim the very top, and the sand is heavy enough that not much gets sucked up.

And my catfish really seemed to revel in it, when they were first exposed to it. It's funny to watch them bury themselves a little in it.

[HooKooDooKu]

Some complain that its easy for a sand bed to make the water cloudy if you do anything to stir it up. But it's possible to wash the sand such that there aren't any light weight particals left to ever float around in the tank.

Basically, wash the sand in small quanities in a bucket. Fill the bucket with water and stir the sand as vigerously as possible. Then let the water swirl around for about 5 seconds, then quickly pour the water out along with what ever is still floating in the water. Do this about a dozen times (trying to mix and stir the sand up as much as possible) and when you add the sand to your tank, all you'll have left is heavy sand grains that will sink immediately.

[KittyNin]

I just got Seachem's Black Fluorite sand for my new tank, and after washing it well there was virtually no dust. Looks beautiful and will be great for plants, though I can't say much about maintenance because I don't have any fish in the tank yet!