sand or gravel?

[brody]

hi i am planning on having a new 10 gallon tank for a few small fish, what would be better sand or gravel, also if sand what type should i buy? and also how hard is it to clean sand as i have gravel in my two other tanks
sorry for all the questions many thanks for any replys.

 

[robinanne]

i wanted black sand for my new 55 but in the end chickened out and got gravel. it seemed like i read more negative feeback. i still kinda wish i had gotten the sand.

 

[brnttoast]

i have plain ole playsand in my planted tanks, i think it looks great, never really shows any waste as the particles are multi colored and i have high flow from filters
if you go sand i suggest a prefilter on the filter intake, i use a simple sponge paint roller i buy at our local dollaramas for 3/$1, just throw them away when they become a pain to clean every few days
sand can do alot of damage to a filter if you have a fish stiring it, so the sponge solves this
i dont have a planted gravel tank so cant do honest comparison, but can say my planted sand tanks require alot less cleaning then the gravel tanks, the test levels are always acceptable where the gravel tanks peak if i get slack on the water changes

 

[brody]

thanks when adding the sand do you have to clean it or anythink?

 

[robinanne]

from what i read when i was researching it you have to rinse rinse and then rinse some more.