Is Sand or Gravel better in a tank?

All of my fish recently died in my 10-gallon tank. I am starting again and have to throw away my gravel from my tank. The fish had diseases, and all died at once in a course of 3 days so i do not want to keep gravel that has the possibility to cause problems in a new tank even it has been washed thoroughly.

I am wondering what type of substrate is best in a fish tank. I will be keeping mollies, snails, catfish, or guppies. (guppies or mollies) lol. I had grvel previosly but the waste from the fish went all the way to the bottom of the tank and i could never get enough out. I am wondering about sand instead of gravel. is this something anyone would recommend. is it easy to maintain. does it fly up when water is added, does waste typically stay on the top layer, is it easier to clean, in general is it a lot better than gravel.

The only thing I am worried about with sand is that when I add new water it will disrupt the sand and it will fly all up in the fish tank, but if this happens will it settle or will it forever float in the tank making it look cloudy.

 

All my tanks have a plant substrate capped with sand and I don't see myself using gravel at any point in the future. I like the more realistic look of sand. Keep in mind sand is more difficult to clean, but I do not gravel vacuum my sand, I just let mulm accumulate. When I do water changes I let the water first hit something like a rock or the top of my internal filter as the sand would be disturbed. If the sand is disturbed it will just sink back down and I can push it back to its original spot. Whether or not to choose sand also has a lot to do with what fish you will be keeping, some species need the sand to dig in. You say you will have catfish, are these corydoras catfish? If so, sand is a must.

 

All of my fish recently died in my 10-gallon tank. I am starting again and have to throw away my gravel from my tank. The fish had diseases, and all died at once in a course of 3 days so i do not want to keep gravel that has the possibility to cause problems in a new tank even it has been washed thoroughly.

I am wondering what type of substrate is best in a fish tank. I will be keeping mollies, snails, catfish, or guppies. (guppies or mollies) lol. I had grvel previosly but the waste from the fish went all the way to the bottom of the tank and i could never get enough out. I am wondering about sand instead of gravel. is this something anyone would recommend. is it easy to maintain. does it fly up when water is added, does waste typically stay on the top layer, is it easier to clean, in general is it a lot better than gravel.

The only thing I am worried about with sand is that when I add new water it will disrupt the sand and it will fly all up in the fish tank, but if this happens will it settle or will it forever float in the tank making it look cloudy.

There are pros and cons to both, with sand, you can see any debris of top, sand is probably harder to vacuum since you have to be careful not to vacuum to much sand but you only have to clean the top of the sand since not a lot can penetrate through the first layer, plants can not grow easily in sand since it is very compact, but you only have to clean the top of the sand since not a lot can penetrate through the first layer. With gravel you can easily grow plants and vacuum it without having to replace it since it can't get sucked up when you vacuum, sand is probably better for all bottom feeders since it allows them to sift through the bottom without hurting their sifting bristles. The choice is all your but this is just my input about both.

 

The catfish will be cory catfish, yes.

I also do not grow plants in my tanks. I do not feel as if I am an experienced enough fish keeper to grow plants. I do have frogs that I got (African dwarf frogs) that used to have live plants in their tank, but the plants kept dying and creating this mushy stuff, so I just placed in fake plants. I got these frogs from my aunt who bought them from froggies lair, the plants were supposed to maintain themselves because it is a biosphere, but they never did. So, I do not feel very capable of using live plants, although it would be beautiful.

Thank you, I will be using sand, from what you all have explained it seems more nature like, easier on the fish, and just a better option in my opinion as well. Thanks again.

 

The catfish will be cory catfish, yes.

I also do not grow plants in my tanks. I do not feel as if I am an experienced enough fish keeper to grow plants. I do have frogs that I got (African dwarf frogs) that used to have live plants in their tank, but the plants kept dying and creating this mushy stuff, so I just placed in fake plants. I got these frogs from my aunt who bought them from froggies lair, the plants were supposed to maintain themselves because it is a biosphere, but they never did. So, I do not feel very capable of using live plants, although it would be beautiful.

Thank you, I will be using sand, from what you all have explained it seems more nature like, easier on the fish, and just a better option in my opinion as well. Thanks again.

np, what kind of plants did you have?

 

I do not feel as if I am an experienced enough fish keeper to grow plants. I do have frogs that I got (African dwarf frogs) that used to have live plants in their tank, but the plants kept dying and creating this mushy stuff, so I just placed in fake plants

I bet that could be changed!
If you need help with successfully keeping some plants healthy, let us know.

Some beginner plants are so easy, as long as you don't have an ion exchange based water softener installed whereever you live, they survive almost anywhere.

 

I don't do plants so I don't have soils or sand. I have larger river rock in one tank, gravel in another and bare bottom in a 3td tank.

I use a large vac in the larger tank with the river rock, it picks up some in the tube but it's not a big deal and doesn't jam up. If I'm not careful with the small vac in the tank with gravel the whole vac tube will fill up with it and block it up.

And the the 3rd, the bare bottom, and I know not a lot of people are going to agree and so be it, but I like this one the best, every bit of poop or uneaten food is highly visible and a highly annoying eyesore. There's nothing to jam up the vacuum and I'm prone to clean more often because any mess is highly visible instead of out of sight and out of mind.
I don't have bottom feeders in any of the tanks currently. One substrate is as good as another when I did keep them, in order for them to thrive and stay healthy, just like all other fish, the tank has to be kept clean. Whether you do that with regular water changes and vacuuming, or water changes and lots of plants, a filter is only going to get you so far.
Like any pet, it you don't clean up after them regularly, they have to live in their filth and they don't thrive, eventually get sick and then need meds or die. A dirty tank is a dirty tank and with bottom feeders if they have to root through poop and bacteria to get food, they are going to get poop and bacteria and food and eventually get an infection.

I'm not saying a bare bottom tank is the best way, it's just one of many ways, and for me it's easy to keep the tank and water pristine for breeding.
Do whatever you like, but in order for your fish to thrive, it's gotta be kept clean as a step 1. Whatever you do about decorating and habitat building should always take maintaining it into consideration, if it's impossible to clean it's not going to last long term.

 

Agree that bare bottom is the easiest to clean but gives you less surface area for beneficial bacteria

 

Both! Coarse sand or fine gravel.

 

Fine gravel is best
I don't think a 10g is big enough for Mollies

 

I agree with Sparky that keeping the substrate clean is key to keeping fish healthy. With standard 3-6mm gravel kept at a moderate depth of around 1.5 inches or so this is very easy to do... Just vacuum when doing your regular water changes. No waste build up means no bad bacteria to make fish sick.

 

I have sand in one tank and aragonite in another. You have to be careful about sand when doing water changes and maint.
Sand will stop a HOB filter in its tracks should any get sucked up. So if you're gonna use sand, get the most coarse you can find.
When I do water changes I like to run the filters just as soon as I get the water up over the intake tubes. So the agitated substrate particles can be picked up.
Pouring water into the tank with sand can agitate the sand enough that it will get sucked up and into the filter. I have done this countless times and its a real pain to clean the filter when my plans were to only change water.
This does not happen when I add water to the aragonite tank. The particles are heavy enough they cannot get suspended for long and the chance of any getting into the intake tube is greatly reduced.
Gravel is also not likley to get into filters.

 

I personally like pea gravel better because it’s easy to vacuum. I just have enough to where it’s only covering the bottom of my 20 gallon long (about an inch deep or less). I use guppy grass and hornwort for plants.

 

I walked away from gravel. I use pool filter sand or med grit BDBS.

 

I walked away from gravel. I use pool filter sand or med grit BDBS.

Same