Which Is Easier To Clean? Gravel Or Sand?

So sometime in the future I’d like to set up a new 5 gallon tank for a betta and I was wondering is gravel or sand easier to clean? I’ve used sand in the past and the betta I head was EATING it so I switched to gravel and he had no problems. I love the appearance of sand but I’ve heard it’s rather mildly difficult to clean. So which would be easier to clean gravel or sand?

 

I think both are about the same. I would choose based on what fish and plants I want.

 

Sand is harder to clean initially compared to gravel. No matter how well you wash it, it only takes a little while for the water to look cloudy... but I found the bottle method works well - basically fill a bottle with sand and water, put a cap on submerge in tank and then allow the sand to pour out... the dust is remain mostly in the bottle... - which is easily youtubed to give you an idea on how it works.


In terms of weekly cleaning, I've found sand way easier to clean than gravel, since you often have to vacuum the gravel for waste intensively while with sand all the waste stays on top so all you have to do is a light skI'm for waste over the sand.

 

Sand for sure.

None of the debris gets under it.

A problem I get occasionally is that I accidentally siphon some sand out.
It isn’t too much though.

 

Okay! Thanks for your opinions everyone! I’ll be hopefully getting some black sand. I was thinking of getting the National Geographic black sand, would you say it’s a pretty good brand?

 

Okay! Thanks for your opinions everyone! I’ll be hopefully getting some black sand. I was thinking of getting the National Geographic black sand, would you say it’s a pretty good brand?

I've heard good things about the National Geographic sand. I personally use the Imagitarium black sand from Petco because it was much cheaper per 20lbs. It's usually on sale online or you can get them to price match in store if you have one locally.