Well for the longest time in my 120, I had 3mm t grade black sand and it was awesome but slowly as everyone in there grew (tiger oscar, delhezi bichir, senegal bichir, 2 ornate bichirs) i started seeing one thing: poop. It would all just sit on the top so I was having to do waterchanges like crazy (which of course isnt a bad thing but you know...) So after getting angry at looking at that forever I finally painted my tank and went bare bottom. I figured if im cleaning it all the time I might as well do something to make it easier. But now without the sand it just looks even worse and Im waterchanging every 2 days almost lol. So my questions is what would be the best idea for the tank? I was thinking of doing natural gravel to get some bio filtration going but I just dont know if it would cover up all the crap so I could go back to doing weekly waterchanges rather than a million. Substrate suggestions?
Best substrate for Oscars?
- Thread starter Wretched5705
- Start date
I thought about natural gravel, too. But I don't like how substrate hangs on to muck, so I'm sticking with barebottom for now. I think of the turds as decoration. j/k. I actually like the way in all collects in one spot and I can net it out when I want. But, yeah, it's ugly. I wouldn't think the gravel muck would be a deal-breaker on water quality for most people. I'm just picky. 
I would keep it bare bottom and use a power head to make the poop collect in one of the corners and then just take a net and scoop it out or if you are running a canister filter maybe lower the intake hose closer to the bottom and use the power head to push it to there ???
right now I have the egg crate in the tank which is diverting alot of the flow to the intake. I cant take it out cause my big oscar will take out my longfin.....
I have 2 Oscars (used to be 3, but I gave Albino away) and with small rocks or sand I would get that ugly looking poo just collecting everywhere. Only thing to do was to get rock that was the approximate size and color of the poo.
That answer, for you my friend, is river rock. I had 3 O's at the time of these Pics. Can't see any nasty sh*t at all can ya?
I just run the gravel vac over the top of the rocks with my weekly water change. The only time I ever see the poo is then... or like right now... because the Tiger just decided to move a bunch of rocks are flick the Moss Balls.
That answer, for you my friend, is river rock. I had 3 O's at the time of these Pics. Can't see any nasty sh*t at all can ya?
I just run the gravel vac over the top of the rocks with my weekly water change. The only time I ever see the poo is then... or like right now... because the Tiger just decided to move a bunch of rocks are flick the Moss Balls.
its just river rock gravel you should be able to get it from petsmart or where ever, thats what i had in my 120 before i switched to sand, i liked the natural look and yeah it hid poo really well but i personally prefer the look of the PF sand that i have in there right now, sometimes i see poo but for the most part it gathers behind my driftwood and rocks or gets sucked up by my filter and i dont really see it anymore (i run a canister filter and have the intake close to the top of the sand)
maybe its not an issue of my substrate then and my actual filtration, i have a rena xp3 running on the 120 and thats it, should I just upgrade to something bigger?
