Mike Oxbig

how much gravel do i need in a 165 gallon aquarium

mojoman101

i would try for 3 to 4 inches of a base. Look up substrate or gravel in the search to give yourself other opinions.

griffin

you could also google around - there's a few calculators out there that will calculate it for you. however, i'm not sure that you really need or want 3-4 inches of substrate. maybe possibly if you're doing a planted tank, but if you're not, i would tend to think that an inch or so is fine.

mojoman101

i would prefer to keep your options open and with such a large water mass you will have a lot of waste a gravel helps contain it until you can vacumn it out. I guess it really depends on what you want to do with it.

Butterfly

heres a substrate calculator http://www.plantedtank.net/substratecalculator.html
Carol

griffin

possibly true, but more gravel means it'll be harder to get the waste out. with plants, you want slightly more to keep the plants rooted and to keep some waste as fertilizer, but without plants, i would think you would want only as much as needed to make it look good. basically, less gravel --> less to clean

Butterfly

I usually do 2-1/2 to 3 inches of gravel or sand.
Carol

mojoman101

cool, thank you for your info. appreciate it when i learn new things.
mojo

armadillo

Gravel calculator = fabulous tip, thanks!