# What kind of gravel would look best in my tank?



## wade0328 (Jul 2, 2013)

Well this is my tank and I was going to change the gravel because I hate it. What color do you think would look good with my background, I am also going to put all green plants.


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## BelieveInBlue (Jul 17, 2011)

I would go with a natural colour, probably some sort of brown/tan, or black, to help blend with the background.


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## jcabage (May 29, 2012)

Have you considered sand? That would be my choice.

The background is quite nice


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## smitty814 (Sep 27, 2012)

Pool filter sand would look the best.


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## NJmomie (Jan 17, 2013)

I would use black sand to accentuate the colors of your fish.


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## 4RSo (Aug 13, 2011)

smitty814 said:


> Pool filter sand would look the best.


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## wade0328 (Jul 2, 2013)

jcabage said:


> Have you considered sand? That would be my choice.
> 
> The background is quite nice


No I haven't really considered sand! Is it any harder to maintain than gravel? Also I am changing the gravel so how will I go about this without messing up the bacteria? Will it re cycle?


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## BelieveInBlue (Jul 17, 2011)

There should be a lot of bacteria in the filter, if you have a decent sized one, so changing the gravel should not affect it significantly.


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## wade0328 (Jul 2, 2013)

Alright yeah I have a 55 gallon so a decent size. I think I might try out pool filter sand. It seems cheap but nice.


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## jcabage (May 29, 2012)

wade0328 said:


> how will I go about this without messing up the bacteria? Will it re cycle?


Just test your water daily for a week or so to be sure you don't have a spike... I never have when removing substrate though.

You can always bag up some of the rocks and leave them in the tank a while until the sand is established. I've read about several people doing this, but I've never done it myself and never had an issue.


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## wade0328 (Jul 2, 2013)

Okay, thanks! Do you recommend any daily water changes? Or maybe just once a week?


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## CrypticLifeStyle (Dec 14, 2009)

Just stick with your normal weekly schedule. You'll be ok. It's a lightly stocked tank, the bio load wont be so much it'll cause a dangerous spike. I'm going off what i see in the picture unless there's a hidden group of large fish somewhere lol.


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## wade0328 (Jul 2, 2013)

Well I have 3 Danios 10 Tiger barbs 5 Rasaboras 3 Bala sharks 2 Plecos 2 Catfish and 2 Dwarf Gouramis. I just switched to pool filtered sand today. I took out about half of the water put it in a cooler then took most of the rest out because it was really dirty. I would say there is 40% of the old water in there and like 60% of the new water I had to put in. I dechlorinated it and everything. It is still a little foggy 2-3 hours later and I have the fish in. Will the fogginess take a while to leave? OR do I have something to worry about?


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## CrypticLifeStyle (Dec 14, 2009)

Depends what kind of mechanical filtration you have in the filters. It will go away, and settle eventually. How fast will depend how fine of a size the filter can filtrate. I use to slip a piece of pantyhose over the filter intake to speed things up. You can really stuff the filter with polyfiber or a pad of sorts to help trap it. Seeing the time of your last post your probably fine now right?


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## wade0328 (Jul 2, 2013)

Yup! It is clear now for sure! Let's just hope it doesn't fog up again due to another cyle.


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## BillD (May 17, 2005)

Check out the colour of this stuff.. http://www.redflint.com/filtration.htm The gravel and sand are made up of the same colours.


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