Traditional gravel or sand?

Hi all! Being a new member here since yesterday, and seeing so many helpful insights offered up, I figured I would ask for some opinions here. I have multi tanks set up, all consisting of the traditional gravel. We have a 30g to be set up also, and I'm curious ad to everyone's opinions on using gravel, or sand? We've seen the sand bottoms in fish stores we've ventured into and although it's different, with a fresh look, I'm not sure on the pros and cons to having sand over gravel. My top Concern is cleaning it? How easy is it? Currently with our gravel tanks we use a siphon/vacuum hose. I don't really know but I'm assuming that approach wouldn't prove positive with a sand bottom, without sucking up the sand in the process?
Just curious to hear what everyone prefers? What the pros and cons are to having sand, instead if gravel? And how would I go about cleaning the sand as opposed to the gravel? At the end of the day, I will probably just stick to whats familiar and what I know, but I'm interested to get some feed back as I do like the appearance of the sand. Overall, function and practicality matters most. Oppinions please? Tia!

 

This is mostly personal preference, but I think sand is a huge pain. It flies everywhere and gets into everything.
Some people say it's easier to clean because you can just hold your siphon above it and suck up the debris that's resting on its surface. You definitely shouldn't shove it into the sand like you do with vacuuming gravel. But that also means it shows any debris a lot more readily than gravel.

I think the biggest pro to sand is that it's a much better substrate for bottom-dwellers and any critters that love to dig and burrow, such as loaches and cichlids. That's pretty much the only reason I'd put up with it.

 

This is mostly personal preference, but I think sand is a huge pain. It flies everywhere and gets into everything.
Some people say it's easier to clean because you can just hold your siphon above it and suck up the debris that's resting on its surface. You definitely shouldn't shove it into the sand like you do with vacuuming gravel. But that also means it shows any debris a lot more readily than gravel.

I think the biggest pro to sand is that it's a much better substrate for bottom-dwellers and any critters that love to dig and burrow, such as loaches and cichlids. That's pretty much the only reason I'd put up with it.

Thank you so much for the input. I appreciate it. Im definitely not sure if I'm going to go the route of the sand yet, or not, but I am interesting in learning all that I can before making the final decision. I was thinking it could be a royal pain in the Kaiser, but again, I'm ignorant to this subject and want to get the feed back. Thank you for taking the time to help in this.

 

I set up my first sand bottom tank a couple months ago and I don't think I would do it again. I'm constantly replanting alot of my plants or using weights. I know my cories are adding to the problem, but still. I do love the look, next time I'm just going to use it as a finishing touch. Since I still have about 30lbs of unused sand, lol. But it is cheap! If your looking to pinch pennies you can get 50 lbs of sand for $10.

 

I set up my first sand bottom tank a couple months ago and I don't think I would do it again. I'm constantly replanting alot of my plants or using weights. I know my cories are adding to the problem, but still. I do love the look, next time I'm just going to use it as a finishing touch. Since I still have about 30lbs of unused sand, lol. But it is cheap! If your looking to pinch pennies you can get 50 lbs of sand for $10.

Ahh ok! Thank you! I never even considered the plants staying in place with the sand. This is exactly why I wanted to get opinions on the subject. Although we initially started out with artificial decos 3 years back, we're since gone with live plants in the ranks and now, I can see the potential problem as sand isn't exactly weighted . thank you for taking the time to reach out. I appreciate it

 

I personally love sand much better than gravel, it looks better and more natural in my opinion. Gravel also tends to trap a lot more debris than sand can and which is another reason why I don't like to use it. In terms of plants I've never had an issue with planting them in sand, as long as you have enough sand and you planted them in deep, they dont typically come out.

For maintenance a quick siphon over the sand will immediately suck up any and all debris. Personally never had an issue with sand.

 

I personally love sand much better than gravel, it looks better and more natural in my opinion. Gravel also tends to trap a lot more debris than sand can and which is another reason why I don't like to use it. In terms of plants I've never had an issue with planting them in sand, as long as you have enough sand and you planted them in deep, they dont typically come out.

For maintenance a quick siphon over the sand will immediately suck up any and all debris. Personally never had an issue with sand.

Thank you so much! Being a subject with very mixed reviews, I'm guessing it's more or less a topic of personal preference. However, what I am seeing is, where I assumed the sand would be harder to clean, it appears that maybe the gravel is more work, as it does trap all the debate, forcing you to go through all the gravel when cleaning. Where the sand, seemed to be just a superficial go through. Thank you for taking the time to give the insight. I appreciate ir

 

I prefer 1-3 mm sand, often mixed with dry leaves. I never clean substrates, it makes the substrate look fake. All plants do well in sand substrates.

For some tanks with heavy "carpet plants", I prefer aqua soil.

 

I have a tank with sand and another with aragonite.
I like sand. But you have to be careful about agitating it. I cannot tell you how many times I had to take a filter apart because sand got into it.
Now in that tank, I do not start up any filters until I am completely done with maintenance.
I use aragonite because my other tank is Mbuna. They like to dig and sand would have been better for them, but we have very soft water here so aragonite helps the PH level the fish need.
Also sand comes in differing particle/grain size. Some is very fine and pure white. It would look awesome. Pool sand tends to be more tan in color (like beach sand) and is more coarse. But its the least expensive. So pay attention to grain size and color.
Only you can decide. Try it in one of your tanks first to see.

 

I have either pool filter sand or sandblasting sand (depending on what color I wanted at the time) in all eight tanks, and wouldn't want gravel.

• Food and other debris can't get down below the surface with sand.
• I rarely have problems with getting plants to stay in place. I suggest putting the sand at least two inches thick.
• I've never had a problem with picking up sand when vacuuming during water changes, or with it getting into my filters. I can even stick the end of the vacuum tube down into the sand. Some of it may initially get sucked up, but it falls back down, with very little going through the hose and into the bucket. Maybe it would be more of a problem with finer grain sand?
• I have Malaysian trumpet snails in all my tanks, so compaction isn't an issue.

 

I keep a very low-level of smooth gravel to make vacuuming easy.

 

I have used both, for whatever reasons i like working with the gravel better, preferably the natural looking stuff. I do like the way sand and gravel look though. Just feel like gravel is easier to maintain for me.