The Puffer Forum

Can i put regular gravel in a saltwater tank?

I suggest against it. Please do a lOT more research before going into SW. http://www.reefcentral.com, is a good place to start.

well i am but right now i am on brackish and i have gravel. and i just got a new 80 gal tank but i dont have the money to buy any of that expensive substrate.

If you are not going to do live rock, and have a good skimmer and some kind of wet/dry (ie biowheel) it can be fine, just vacuum the gavel weekly or more. You probably will also have nitrate problems so weekly water changes are still suggested, in addition to the lack of buffering from aragonite.

Yes you definietly want argonite based substrate. IE: crushed coral, sand, sea shells. Something to raise/buffer your PH. Mine used to stay around 7.8 in BW when I had gravel. When I put the sand in it shot to 8.1/8.2. Such Is perfect for marine. I added the live rock after too. I know shoulda did that first but the ph stayed at 8.2. I'd imagine scaleless fish would hate gravel thou. They prolly wouldn't pick at as much for foods. It gets buried down in the rocks and can scratch there fraigile bodys. Definetly get sand or coral substrate. Shouldn't be that expensive. I got 60 Lb for 60$. Fine argonite sand. Way to much than I needed but ohwell. You kno you only need a bit less than 2" right? If your concerned about the cost maybe SW isn't the way to go. It gets pretty exspensive beyond just a tank with sand.

Any advice for swapping the gravel out of a BW tank & putting in aragonite sand? The tank is currently up & running at 1.013/4 with 2 small GSPs. Just wondering what the best/least stressful way of doing it would be.

bigfatfish wrote:Any advice for swapping the gravel out of a BW tank & putting in aragonite sand? The tank is currently up & running at 1.013/4 with 2 small GSPs. Just wondering what the best/least stressful way of doing it would be.

Just do it, make sure to wash the sand thoroughly, its still going to make the tank cloudy so have some good mechanical filtration. Put in just enough sand to cover the bottom ~1"

When I remove gravel from a tank that is up and running, I just use a 4 to 6" fishnet and scoop it out. I personally don't like using fine sand in a tank, and I would use the next bigger size, because it seems easier to clean/vacuum during water changes. IMO

bastallard wrote:When I remove gravel from a tank that is up and running, I just use a 4 to 6" fishnet and scoop it out. I personally don't like using fine sand in a tank, and I would use the next bigger size, because it seems easier to clean/vacuum during water changes. IMO

Good idea to use the fish net as a scoop.
Do you think the fish should be left in whilst I am doing it though - they are pretty used to me messing about in the tank but this might be a pretty big job. Trying to decide if it would be more stressful to take them out or leave them in.

You can leave them in, and after you're done let the tank settle and then vacuum any debris off the bottom before adding new substrate, and instead of just poring in the new substrate use your net to gently place it on the bottom, this will help keep the water from clouding up as much.