Joe G

Gravel, Sand, or rocks what would be the best for 5 gallon tank with live plants and tropical fish

Boxermom

Best for planted tanks is Eco Complete or Flourite. I prefer Eco Complete because you don't need to rinse it. Flourite requires TONS of rinsing.

Isabella

I agree with Boxermom. If you want your plants to really do well, get a nutrient-rich substrate like Eco-Complete (CaribSea) or Fluorite (Seachem). Since your tank is only 5 gallons, even if Fluorite requires a lot of rinsing, it's still not a lot of work for a 5 gallon tank - a piece of cake, I'd say. But you may as well go with Eco-Complete. Fluoride is brownish-red in color and Eco-Complete is black.

Here is a great article on how to properly rinse Fluorite:
http://www.vickisaquaticplace.com/fluorite.html

Boxermom

Seachem now has gravels for plants in various colors: Flourite, Flourite Red and Onyx Sand (not really a sand). http://www.seachem.com/products/gravels.html

CaribSea also now has a red gravel as well for planted tanks: http://www.carib-sea.com/pages/produ...shplanted.html

Isabella

Plus, Seachem has Fluorite Black coming out soon (they don't know the exact date yet). If they have it coming in the next couple of months, I may get it. I wanted to get regular Fluorite but it is too reddish for me. However, if they will have Fluorite Black, it will be possible to mix it with regular Fluorite to achieve a more toned-down color of the substrate. It's not generally recommended to mix Fluorite with Eco-Complete, so Fluorite Black would be a great product as it can be mixed with regular Fluorite. I have recently received samples of Fluorite, Fluorite Red, and Onyx Sand - I mixed all three and put in them one spot in my tank. I put a small amazon sword (an outgrowth of my large amazon sword) in this spot to test Fluorite. Believe it or not, with less then 1 wpg, this plant is growing 10 times faster then the rest of the swords in my tank. I am seeing new leaves every 2 days or so. That proves that Fluorite is indeed a very good substrate.

atmmachine816

Whatever you do don't get sand. I tried sand in my 2.5 once and it's too small and it gets in the filters and everything, you need a bigger tank for sand.