Gravel or Sand???

[focusfanatic]

Can you use sand in a betta's tank rather than gravel/rocks? I wanted to remodel my betta's tank for a more zen look.

[Little-Fizz]

Sure you could, why wouldn't you be able too?

[Meatpuppet]

of course, but just be aware that gravel is easier to work with

[JMeenen]

Sand looks really nice but it is hard to clean

[Little-Fizz]

It's not hard to clean, it just takes more effort then gravel. You just vacuum the waste off the top of the sand, and stir it up a little with a fork to make sure you don't develope any dead spots.

[focusfanatic]

cool guys thanks

[okiemavis]

Little-fizz is right about the dead spots. This is a major safety note- if you don't regularly stir up sand it will develop anaerobic pockets which, if released into the aquarium, can be really, really bad for your fish.

Having said that, I used sand and I love it! Plus, play sand at home depot runs $4/50 lbs, so it's definitely a cheap way to go. It's perfectly tank safe, just make sure you rinse it like crazy. Once you put it in it will initially fog up your aquarium regardless of the endless rinsing you can do, but the rinsing does help.

[Tyyrlym]

Rinsing is easy, just time consuming. I used a five gallon buckey and poured about a quarter of the bag of sand in at a time. I sprayed it with a garden hose and stirred it up with the jet and my hand. Given the sand a few seconds to settle and then pour of the water. It'll be dark and murky to begin with. Just keep doing that over and over until the water is clear and you can't get it any clearer. Dump the sand in and start on the next bucket. Personally I spent from 20 to 40 minutes per bucket depending on how full they were.

Like Okie said it will cloud up no matter what you do but it'll clear as you keep your filter running.

[JMeenen]

so....nedless to say it's harder than gravel.......

[Tyyrlym]

Yeah, it's a bit more of a pain to set up. I don't really think the added work is that much in the grand scheme of things. An extra few hours to get the tank set up, and extra five minutes when you vacuum, its not that much harder.