Substrate?

[Indefinitive]

Okay, so a few weeks ago, I went bare. I took all of the rocks out of Gregory's tank. However, after I did this, I remembered that bacteria lives in the substrate. So his ammonia levels spiked, and I'm back a few steps in cycling the tank.

And then I found that I hated the look of it, despite how easy it had become to clean, so I want to put substrate back in and purchase a substrate vacuum.

Right about now, I'm considering sand as a substrate, since it is so fine that pretty much anything will sit on the surface of it, instead of sinking through to the bottom. Has anyone gone this route? If so, can you tell me how its worked out for you?

[whitedevil]

here



towards the end are the betta in the sand. I have super fine aquarium sand in my tank, yes it does sit right on top. its very easy to clean without sucking up any of the sand, however you need to kill your filter before you attempt to clean it due to the cloud.

My betta likes the super fine compared to my last tank that had coarse sand and gravel mix, however it was a different betta too. old man buddy, he was a great fish,even trained but thats another day.

Take a look got any questions let me know, Im actually going live plant due to the plastic plants and finny fish clash.

[dramaqueen]

A lot of people use play sand and it has to be rinsed really well before using it.

[Kim]

I use play sand in 2 of my tanks. I like it in the betta tank, but in my other tank I'm not sure I'm as crazy about it because like you said all the poop stays on the top and I don't really like my cories swimming through poop. That tank has many more fish in it though....

Overall, it's a nice, cheap substrate for betta tanks. Just give it a stir every once in a while, vaccuum the top, and you're good to go as far as cleaning.