what type of bottom do you oscar fish lovers suggest for the bottom of a 130 gallon tank. 48"l 29"H 18W
i have to small tiger oscars in a 55 and am setting up a new tank.
i have two bulkhead fittings in teh bottom with suction screens, so i think sand is out of the question, although the smallest gravel would not make it through the screen

You will get lots of people saying sand but i say gravel with a undergravel filter. What you do is put in a UGF, cover with some gravel and then put a gravel tidy in, then more gravel. Then get the output of a cannister filter to push water down the UGF tube. This achieves 2 things. One the UGF gives extra filtration and 2 you dont need to clean the gravel except scooping out the odd large waste

i have a wicked fitler system via the bulkheads, i would just rather vac often that a ugf. never been a fan personally. but ive heard large gravel is hard to clean?

could you please explain to me the "gravel tidy"

thanks again for info. how does a ugf get the fish crap out of the tank?

A gravel tidy is just a mesh that goes over the first layer of gravel to stop your fish digging down to the UGF, if your fish dig down to the UGF plate it wont work

What happens with a reverse UGF is that you take the output of a cannister filter and put it into the UGF tube, this pushes water down the tube and up through the gravel. This pushes small dirt up through the gravel and this finds its way into the cannister where it gets collected by the filter. Now you would think this would mean having to clean the filter more often but i havent really noticed much difference (i clean my filters every 6 weeks).

Gravel is easy to clean, just push a gravel clean into the gravel while you are doing awater change

i see

just push a gravel clean into the gravel while you are doing awater change

what does this mean

The majority of users will advocate the use of sand. I believe sand can be a great substrate, as long as you stir it every once in a while to remove toxic pockets that can form through out the sand substrate.

I think it comes down to personal preference in the end...everyone likes the look and function of something different. I'm using sand for the first time and absolutely love it! But i've also seen some tanks that look great with gravel and probably will have gravel as well in the future for some tanks. Just look through pictures of peoples setup and see what you like the look of the best.

i got three sizes of gravel in strange colours.
I started with each side in a different colour but the fish mixed it all real good.
The best thing about dif size gravel is that when i vacuum the gravel the smallest gravel will be on top and i can see which parts i done allready.
Different colours make that the dirt don't show that much.

i use to have substrate mix (50/50 pebbles/sand) and yes, sand always on
top every after vacuuming....

in my gold fish tank, gf used to scooped the substrate and spit out...
leaving the bigger granules always on top.

adkraptor wrote:


Have a look on the net for gravel cleaners, you will see what you will need. You use it to start changing the water, push the gravel cleaner(the big bit) into the gravel and lift a little. This cleans the gravel

I like smaller gravel. its easier to clean. but it also depends on if you have "theme" type thing or not. my opinion smaller is better!