Regular Member TheFishMan Posted December 28, 2007 Regular Member Share Posted December 28, 2007 Ok, I'm trying to decide what i want on the bottom of my tank, at first i wanted white sand, but then i thoght it would be too much hasle, im not going to name every idea i had, but at the moment, the most likely are bare bottom, or blue gravel. Maybe start barebottom, then if i think i can handle it move onto gravel... Could somone tell me the advantages and disadvantages of gravel, sand, barebottom and the like please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member 123456789 Posted December 28, 2007 Regular Member Share Posted December 28, 2007 well..if for goldfish, I dont recomend gravel, Shamu i think said she got a goldfish that died over a piece of small gravel got stuck in its mouth, so it can be very dangerous. But it look very beautiful and great for plants, I think benefit bacteria house itself in the gravel, but i dont know what if bad bacteria got trap and develope in those....gravel... Sand is just to messy, i mean little piece what if goldfish just eat some(they suppose to spit it out though I think). But it make a very good bottom and very beautiful as well barebottom is easy to clean and you dont have to worry about gravel getting stuck in a fish's mouth. But then most of the time you can see poop all over the bottom and it can be disturbing, and if you have plants, you cant keep it down so it just float on top even though you can get a rock or tie it down to something or get a pot put the plants in it and cover it up with pebbles I think pebbles or riverstones is best and safe. Lol P.S. silly sig! lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member love-rabbit-fish Posted December 28, 2007 Regular Member Share Posted December 28, 2007 you should not put sand in with goldies, It would really irritate their gills as when they go rooting around in the bottom, they would "suck" up the sand and it would go out of their gills, kind of like sandpaper, not good I have a barebottom, really easy to clean, and i add a few river rocks for the fish to play with lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Petperson04 Posted December 28, 2007 Regular Member Share Posted December 28, 2007 I've only ever had large gravel in my tank, and it's worked just fine for me. I like it better than a barebottom tank because (in my opinion) those can look barren and empty. It's up to your personal style, though. (You could look at pics of both in the pictures section of the message board.) I would follow love-rabbit-fish's advice and not get sand for goldfish. Sand is supposed to be easy to clean, though, because fish poop just settles on the top... If it were me, I'd go big gravel. PS: Don't get gravel with any small pieces in it because goldfish might swallow them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member 123456789 Posted December 28, 2007 Regular Member Share Posted December 28, 2007 you should not put sand in with goldies, It would really irritate their gills as when they go rooting around in the bottom, they would "suck" up the sand and it would go out of their gills, kind of like sandpaper, not good I have a barebottom, really easy to clean, and i add a few river rocks for the fish to play with lol Lol you know i do weekly water change and the poop i just use the siphon..or w/e they call the thing that to suck out water, and suck it all up....but still it look pretty disturbing during the week lol sometime I use the net and scoop it all up -___-'' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member magscat3161 Posted December 29, 2007 Regular Member Share Posted December 29, 2007 I keep most of mine bare bottom but use glass beads to decorate and keep live plants in pots. I like bare bottoms just coz they're easier to keep immaculate and insures the water quality stays high. There's pro and cons either way you go. It all depends on what you like and have the time to maintain. Gravel bottoms take more time to clean, arrange, so on, and so forth. Bare bottoms take next to no time to clean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member 123456789 Posted December 29, 2007 Regular Member Share Posted December 29, 2007 I keep most of mine bare bottom but use glass beads to decorate and keep live plants in pots. I like bare bottoms just coz they're easier to keep immaculate and insures the water quality stays high. There's pro and cons either way you go. It all depends on what you like and have the time to maintain. Gravel bottoms take more time to clean, arrange, so on, and so forth. Bare bottoms take next to no time to clean. beautiful and gosh your oranda is a cutie! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member magscat3161 Posted December 29, 2007 Regular Member Share Posted December 29, 2007 beautiful and gosh your oranda is a cutie! Thanks! That's Inari she's a sweetie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Lolafish Posted December 29, 2007 Regular Member Share Posted December 29, 2007 Black river rock is perfect. I love the way it looks. Too big for goldies to get into trouble, and easy to keep clean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member gardengirl Posted December 29, 2007 Regular Member Share Posted December 29, 2007 I had the polished black river rock in my show tank but was bothered at how much gunk got stuck in and under the stones, so I took them out. It still looks pretty nice and the intake for the filter is resting on the bottom of the tank, so it sucks most of the poop out for me..... I potted up the plants and they look alright. I may still go to gravel someday, but for now this looks nice and it keeps the tank a lot cleaner. Before I had this show tank I broke down a smaller tank I had in that location and washed the gravel. It was full of gunk and stunk so badly, and this with me doing weekly water changes. You just cannot control what gets down in that gravel! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Lolafish Posted December 29, 2007 Regular Member Share Posted December 29, 2007 I had the polished black river rock in my show tank but was bothered at how much gunk got stuck in and under the stones, so I took them out. I don't have the polished rock, I have the natural rock. Nothing sticks to it at all, and I find as long as I leave open areas to feed, nothing collect underneath them. It's pretty darned cool! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member jamisskat Posted December 29, 2007 Regular Member Share Posted December 29, 2007 Barebottom is awesome!..I just took my gravel out of my 2nd 55g today the tank looks great.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member manadesmalice Posted December 29, 2007 Regular Member Share Posted December 29, 2007 Those glass beads look so groovy! Do your goldfish like them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member TheFishMan Posted December 29, 2007 Author Regular Member Share Posted December 29, 2007 Yeah they do! I might do something like that. What I originally thought was Black gravel - Would look great, and woud make the fish seem more colourful , but i dont know if I can be bothered with all the constant work to keep it clean White gravel - Makes the water look cloudy, amakes the fish look less colourful, but poop doesnt show up as well. Again hard to clean Blue Gravel - Makes the water look blue, great! Compliments the fish's colours slightly. But is again hard to keep clean Barebottom - Makes the tank look empty, amd in complete, but is easy to look after, but seing those glass beads, I might use them, cuz we have tons lying around, and used as decoration. But the think is, I wanted a planted tank, and plants at the back, withmy black river rocks around them, with black gravel at the back, which then thins out, and changes to blue gravel at the front of the tank, with a few ornaments and my air stone and filter in the two back corners, and a full spectrum light. Thats what I really want, but I think I will eventually just get really annoyed with all the cleaning lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member love-rabbit-fish Posted December 29, 2007 Regular Member Share Posted December 29, 2007 But the think is, I wanted a planted tank, and plants at the back, withmy black river rocks around them, with black gravel at the back, which then thins out, and changes to blue gravel at the front of the tank oooh, that'll make a really pretty tank! but one problem with that is the goldies might "rearrange" the gravel after a while with all their rooting around and stuff. in the end you might end up with a gravel mixture of river rocks, blue and blue gravel all over the place Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member TheFishMan Posted December 29, 2007 Author Regular Member Share Posted December 29, 2007 yeah i know, that was another worry, it would have to have a lot of maintinance and stuff, dont know if i could keep up over a long time.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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