I have been thinking about rearranging my tank and changing the substrate which is currently sand.
reason being is... I'm using a eheim 2213 external filter and a fluval 3 internal and a power head to help push the fish crap towards the filter.
basically i cant stand seeing fish crap on the bottom of my tank, it drives me mad.
so here is my thought.. will it work?
removing all the sand and lay lots of slate all over the bottom of the tank, obviously I wont be able to cover the whole bottom but with the amount of slate I have, I should be able to cover most of it.
which then means there wont be a problem with my power head pushing the fish waste across the bottom of the tank.
will this be ok for the fish?
i have 2 oscars (3 inches long)
2 parrots (4 inches long)
1 small pleco (4 inches)

After laying all the slate i will then be putting back their big piece of driftwood which they all love plus their plants so the setup wont change much apart from the bottom.
whats your thoughts?

I think crap will creep between the slate. if you want a very low maintenance tank have nothing but fish and empty tank. your power head will clean all the poop to the filter. You could try your idea its not going to cost if you have the slate anyway, just time and effort.

You'll still have crap on the bottom of your tank, but the difference being it will probably find its way under the slate if you've got any gaps. That is the beauty of sand, everything lays on top so the filtration removes it.

I don't think it will improve your situation but don't hold me to that. You can only but try

Thats 1 reason why im getting rid of sand, before i go bed at night, my sand is nice and level and looks great, i wake up in the morning and its everywhere, mountains of it, and fish shit burried underneath it all.
its really driving me mad.
i know the parrots and maybe the oscars have fun with it, but its causing me loads of hassle.
thats a good point about fish crap getting under the slate, i didnt think of that.
i was tempted to have nothing on the bottom but i cant because i noticed something, when i wake up in the morning before i go work, i check on my fish (5am) and notice that where they have moved all the sand and left some parts with nothing there, the bottom looks like a mirror and the oscars seem to try and attack the bottom
(due to them seeing themselfs in the reflection)
is there a way i can stop that?
i was told there is nothing i can do about that.
i was going to buy some black or grey paper and put it between the tank and the tank stand but i got told it wont stop the reflection.

i just use standard gravel. i wanted to try out sand for my next tank, but i seemed to have forgotten and walked out of the store with gravel haha. gravel is pretty decent and is easy to clean. my os seem to like the gravel alot theyre always moving it around and throwing it down in random spots

if your changing your substrate, and you have the slate, id give it a shot. ive never seen it before, but i bet with some nice placement it would look really nice. the hardest part will be taking all the sand out, and if you dont like the slate it'll be easy to remove. then you could always change to something else, or even back to the sand if u keep it

so is there anyway of me getting rid of the reflections on the bottom of the tank?

this is where the current in tank help the hobbyist a lot.
powerhead is usually being used to agitate the water, sometimes
pushing the water and make some bubbles, but if not directed to
the suction point, water will just circling around, carrying the
dirts and poohs. if you put all suction point at one end, and then
direct all discharge at the other end, poohs & other waste will be
delivered effectively at the filter media, those maintaining the sand
clear. oscars and parrots love to bulldoze those substrate. but with
the water current inside, i dont any shit around.

during feeding time, left over food are also stuck at the suction point,
thus, easier to remove.

I think i have decided to just remove all the sand and have nothing on the bottom, maybe a few big pieces of slate either side of the tank, im just worried about my oscars trying to attack their reflection.
surely they will realise after a while that its not another fish and just stop what they keep doing, yes?
im just scared their going to cause themself an injury, the parrots dont seem that bothered but the oscars seem to go mad over their reflection.
HELP!!!

to elinimate the reflection on the bottom of the tank simply paint it black(on the outside). the only thing with this approach is that you have to empty the tank to turn it over to paint it. i have done this on a couple of my tanks and i use krylon areosol paint(available at any hardware store). it only take about ten min to dry so the stess on the fish will be minimal.

would it have to be black? could i not paint like a rock effect on the bottom?

you can paint it any way you like. the idea is to eliminate the reflection from the glass. i used black because i had it laying around from painting the back of my last tank.

jsut remember to paint the outside of the tank unless you get some special paints that dont release any toxins. this can be very dangerous to fish.

I have no intention on painting the inside, just the outside.
thanks for your advice.