how much gravel?

[fish_illiterate]

how much gravel should be put into the bottom of a 10 gallon tank? (1 inch 2, 3...?)

 

[NoDeltaH2O]

It depends on what type of setup you plan on having. For plastic plants all you need is enough to hold them down, and an inch or inch and a half should be sufficient. If you go with live plants, you need to look into gravel/substrate closely. If you don't have live plants then you want to keep the gravel clean by regularly vacuumin it to remove the crud that settles down into it. Gravel serves the purpose of increasing the surface area on which nitrifying bacteria live, as well as mimicing the natural environment of some fish. There is no right or wrong amount, so go with what you like.

 

[newman187]

I have a spare 10g tank lying around because I converted my 50 gallong salt tank to freshwater (yea yea i know people usually do that the other way around) and I plan on taking that 10g tank to work and making it into a planted FW tank, and I plan on having a 3" substrate (flourite) to grow plants. Like NOD says it all depends on what you wanna do. A planted tank can be very beautiful, planty of things you can do. A bit more info on what type of fish you plan on keeping as well as if you plan on having plants in there.

 

[Firebug]

I put just 2 inches of gravel in mine. It all depends tho, as stated above!

 

[Jadenblack]

I only had 1 inch of sand and I was really happy with the way that it looked, but when I went to add plants I realized there was not enough sand to hold the plants. So now I have about 1 inch in the front where there are no plants and about 2 inches in the back so there is slop from front to back, I heard that is how you should do it any ways.

I would start out with 1 inch and then add to it as you plant.

 

[fish_illiterate]

i am putting in a betta with neon tetras. if any, plastic plants, i want to get the fish settled before anything

 

[Lubbinloaches]

If you're going plastic, then you just need enough to hold the plants down. The less gravel you have the easier it is to clean the tank...less chance of organic matter getting trapped in the gravel and dirtying your water.

 

[revfred]

Rule of Thumb is 2#/gallon. However, I've found that with real plants you need more usually.

 

[Balloon Fish]

2#/gallon?? whats that mean?

if your going with with plastic plants half an inch to an inch is fine

 

[LoachDude]

inch of sand I would say, but it depends on the setup.

 

[FroggyFox]

Baloon fish that is 2 pounds per gallon. This # is also called the pound sign.

 

[Balloon Fish]

oo ok i gotcha =)

I wouldnt do sand cause its hard to clean gravel is a good begginners substrate

 

[LoachDude]

Well I guess it's pretty good for begginners, but more experienced people really like to use sand too............like myself