Hi
Just wondering what substrate you guys use
Is there a prefered substrate by the fish themselfs?
Is sand a good idea? can it block up filters?
These fish dig and could the free floatin sand ruin filters?
or is pea shingle a good idea?
any help please:unsure:

Sand every time, I love the stuff. In my humble opinion, it looks nicer and it certainly 10 times easier to clean. Using sand makes for a cleaner tank. Debris makes its way under the gravel which means you have to gravel vac on a regular basis. Sand is completely the opposite, dirt and debris stays on top. If you're using very good filtration, most of the dirt will be removed, otherwise just use the gravel vac once a week to remove the dirt which will be quite visible on top, especially if you use a light coloured sand.

To answer your question about ruining your filters, I have had no problems with my two filters. I been using them for nearly 3 years now. Sand will find its way into your filtration, there's nothing you can do about that. I would just say use the best quality filtration possible, in my opinion, you get what you pay for. I have always used Eheim, I don't think there's anything better on the market.

After readin this I would like to switch to sand. I use small stone right now. I've been to my LFS and they don't have sand.
Can I just use playground sand or something else? Can I switch to sand while the fish are still in the tank?

sorry don't know why it double posted there.

I had sand in my 260l tank and it did cause problems with my external canisters with my 'o' digging and rooting about.

Because of this I took my sand out and replaced with fine 3mm pea gravel. This still holds a lot of waste on the surface yet heavy enough to avoid being sucked into filters.

Sand can damage the impeller surface and cause failure of the motor or electrical short. Think it all depends on how high/deep your tank is and how close your suction strainer is to the substrate surface.

My strainer was 8" above the sand. When I cleaned out my filter every fortnight and removed the trays there was always a small amount of sand swilling about in the bottom of the canister.

As 'OFL' says though some people have no problems and prefer sand.

For me started with large gravel,went to sand then fine 3mm pea gravel. This gravel looks nice and works best for me.

I do a gravel vac every sunday with a water change.The tank looks great throughout the week. However with sand it shows up the 'poo' like a big neon sign and within a day of cleaning the tank it looks dirty again.

I was in the tank every other day cleaning it to make it look good as couldnt stand seeing bits of crap floating about like tumbleweed across a desert.

Gravel does help to hide the mess large fish make, But you must do a good clean once a week.

It depends on what sort of thought as you are using. Most filters have pipes that stick to the sides of the tank and suck the water up. I would advise you to do use no more than an inch and a half of sand. Don't put the pipes too close to the sand. I don't think the suction would be strong enough to suck piles of sand, it will suck some up if it is tooclose. The problem you got is when the fish kick the sand up, this is how it gets into the filters most of the time. But like I've already stated, the better quality the filtration, the longer it will last. I'm sure that the manufacturers take into account that people will use sand, after all, a lot of these external Eheim canisters are used in marine tanks were sand is used.

There was something i forgot to add....
My tap water here in torquay virtually has no kh,the test kits wont detect any.
I have to add a bicarb to one of my tank so that my ph wont crash.
My other tanks have pea shingle in them and the shingle does add to my kh,puts it up to about 3 dkh which is fine.
Would sand contain any buffer.?
Maybe id be better going with a gravel,because adding a buffering agent to a large tank could get costly over time.
Thanks for the help

I use 3mm black gravel it brings out the colour of my O's nicely.

I'm not sure about normal sand, coral sand can be used.

Just noticed, you are in Torquay

In my opinion gravel is best because Oscars love to root around and move huge amounts of gravel when adult and in breeding condition. I can see problems with sand at that stage getting into the gills of the oscar and perhaps causing a problem. Oscars dig around in the gravel to dig pits into which they will put their fry before they become free swimming. Once the fry hatch the parents will transfer them to the gravel and then spit gravel on top of them so they are hidden away. Thats why i would always go for gravel over sand. Granted it is easier to clean and if thats a major consideration for anyone then choose sand but i think for the Oscars sake gravel is my choice.

I use a fine granite/marble/slate type substrate its as fine as sand but its 2 heavy 2 get sucked up into the filter

I have sand in my discus tank and gravel in my other 2. Overall i prefer the gravel. As already said gravel looks cleaner. With sand you still have to move all the decorations as all the fish poo collects under them. Its a little more time consuming to gravel clean than to syphon the waste from above the sand however you have to be more careful with sand because if the tubes goes too low it sucks sand out and it too high it dont suck the waste out, with gravel you just plunge it in