What are the positives and negatives of gravel substrate compared to sand substrate?

Question

If I have small fish such as danios?

What about if I had larger goldfish?

Answer 1

Hi,

In my opinion gravel is best, its easier to clear and doesn't get stirred up and sucked in to the filter.

With sand if you want to clean it then its easy to get washed away, sand does make the tank look better though. As well with a sand tank then if you do a water change then it takes days for the sand to settle again and so in this time gets sucked in to the filter. As well big fish would stir it up all the time.

Answer 2

as long as you are carrying out regular water changes,none.unless you want to keep plants.plants grow better in a sand substrate than gravel.it is really down to what you think looks best.

Answer 3

Gravel, Its easier to clean.

Answer 4

Gravel

-Pros-

*you can chose between many different sizes and colors

*very easy to clean with a siphon

*most fish will not be able to kick it up

*easier to maintain plants in gravel substrate

*will protect the eggs and fry of some species of fish

-Cons-

*can damage the barbells of some bottom-dwelling fish

Sand

-pros-

*some species prefer to bury themselves in sand

*will not damage or scrape your fish

*(in my opinion) prettier

-cons-

*may collect pockets of smelly and dangerous (for your fish) gases if it is not mixed up every once in a while

*can damage your filter

*may irritate the gills of fish if it is kicked up by burrowing species

*difficult to keep plants

In your situation, unless you have a particular "look" in mind, you would probably be better off sticking to gravel. Not counting my spawing/grow-out tanks, I have three display tanks:

30g planted tank, it is mostly to show off how lovely plants can be--it has gravel substrate and a number of female bettas

20g long divided tank, my favorite bettas get to be proudly displayed in my living room. The only plants are java moss (which is sorta ugly) it has a gravel substrate

55g river tank, this tank has a huge filter and extra powerheads, to create water flow that mimics a river. The residents of this tank (assorted loaches) really like to burrow in the sand, thus it has a thick sandy substrate. This is my far my favorite tank.

Answer 5

negatives, sand is harder to clean. no place for fry to hide if you don't have enough hiding places over the sand. fry can hide in the gravel to keep from being eaten. gravel is much easier to clean it can be vacuumed out with a siphoning hose. I believe good bacteria builds up better in gravel. fish will ingest more sand into there bodies than gravel when they pick food off the bottom. gravel comes in more colors to pick and choose from. both types of fish you have will benefit more from gravel than sand in my opinion.  

Answer 6

top dwelling fish like danios will be happy with either substrate, they will rarely venture to that part of the tank unless there's food there. of course, if the danios were to breed, there would be more luck with egg survival if there was gravel and if there was sand. with sand, all the dirt (or eggs) just sits on top of it, whereas with gravel, it can sink to the bottom.

with goldfish I would say neither small gravel nor sand, they can (accidentally) consume both while digging about for food. sand can cause quite serious gut compaction.

for a large goldfish tank either go for very large gravel (larger than the fish's mouth) or river rocks or bare bottomed.