To gravel or not to gravel

For "excitement" we have toys for the goldfish. While they had really cute
decorations while they were little, the little porkers quickly outgrew them.
They out grew the little hut, the sunken ship and lastly, the barrels. I had
to remove them when they started getting stuck in them. Tacky though it
sounds, I replaced the toys with pvc plumbing from Home Depot. I got lots of
junctions and elbows in the 2" pipe. Beauty is now up to the 4" piping though,
so I'll have to upgrade the tank or she won't get to play. They love swimming
through the piping. Looks kinda tacky, but they like it..

If you look at Ingrid's spawning picture (under "new stuff"), you'll see her
tank looks like it has gravel in a tray with plants, then the rest is blank.
Looks pretty easy to clean, yet still good for the plants...
 >> Stay informed about: To gravel or not to gravel 

I had this same debate. Exact same situation, actually, except I had 2
smaller tanks and was trying to figure out how I wanted my 90g tank set up.
I ended up deciding on sand. Concrete sand, to be exact. It is a substrate
which the fish can still dig/play in, but it doesn't house food particles
like gravel can since they have no where to hide. The sand packs right
down. You may be surprised at how many people do this.

It does take alot of work to clean it. You have to put a little at a time
in a smaller bucket, fill with water and stir up, then drain off water and
repeat. This gets rid of any small dust particles, and anything else which
may be in the sand (I found leaf bits and a few small twigs). Then dry it
in the hot sun.

GF have been known to choke on gravel bits, which is what worried me. It's
never happened to me personally, but I have heard of it. I have rocks and
plastic plants in the sand now, and plan to add some real plants as well,
someday. I have 4 mystery snails, one swordtail and my GF in the tank.

It's just an option to look into. I don't suggest you get dyed sand since
the chemicals would probably be deadly to your GF. I have heard of using
vegetable dyes to color it, which you can try if you are that patient, which
I am not LOL. You can purchase colored sand substrate (try www.mops.com).
I got mine left over from when we had the chimney fixed a few months ago. I
don't suggest you use "brick sand" since it is too fine, but concrete sand
is a little more coarse, yet is soft enough for the fish. Good luck.

Tammy

"Jon" <jon18_uk2002.RemoveThis@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:83bd902f.0310290252.74eb902c@posting.google.com...
> My tank has been set-up for about a month now, and things are going
> well. Tests say the water is good, but there is still a bit of
> cloudiness to the water (you can see it only when the lights are on),
> but that is clearing.
>
> I am using gravel in the tank, along with some plastic plants. There
> is a Fluval 2 filter. The other day I started a smaller tank which is
> currently housing 2 new fish before they are moved into the main tank.
> For quickness I never added gravel.
>
> Personally I thought the tank looked better, and to my surprise there
> is no mess on the floor of the tank. My feeling is that without
> anything to trap mess the filter has an easier job of moving the water
> around and collecting.
>
> So I took to looking online if gravel is recommended to not. Mixed
> messages really, if I did remove the gravel one thing I am worried
> about, is would the fish get bored?
>
> A few of mine enjoy hunting in the stones for food, plus without the
> gravel I would have no where to add the (fake) plants. So they would
> just have an empty tank.
>
> There are 5 fish in the tank. Maybe having a small part of the tank
> which a fine layer of gravel and the fake plants in it would add
> something back, along with removing the rest of the gravel. Or I
> could look at getting a simple real plant, but then again, goldfish
> and plants can mean problems :-)
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Jon
 >> Stay informed about: To gravel or not to gravel 

I've done a lot of research on substrates and sand is not a good idea.
It can irritate gills and wear the mouth not to mention getting
trapped in the filter and housing aneorbic bacteria.
 >> Stay informed about: To gravel or not to gravel