i just stripped down my tank today, and realized that even with vacuuming, if i don't get every little bit of space in there, there will still be patches of filth buried under the gravel. so if i were to switch to those river rocks i've seen people mention, would i no longer have that problem? because the gravel, as nice as it looks, is a total pain in the *bleep bleep*, and i'm not sure i want to keep dealing with it. if river rocks would cut down the cleaning hassle, i think now would be a good time to switch since i'm cleaning it and resetting it for new fish anyway. i've got a couple concerns about using the larger rocks though, because in my betta bowl, i have large flat glass stones around on the botttom, and i've noticed sometimes my betta gets wedged underneath them. is there a chance of my goldfish getting caught down there? or me losing a snail that way, since they like to get down in every crevice?

I dont know about the snail, but I never had a problem with those river rocks. There is still gonna be some debris caught underneath, but the vacuum will get that so much easier, much less work!
Just a little something on the side, if you have a tank in your bedroom, like I had,
those guys play with the rocks. At least unintentionally, since they like going food hunting in between. Unfortunately, mine decided to do that in the middle of the night, and we had that rock noice going on, which sounded like they were in some sort of soccer match!

Keeping the river rocks sparse also helps a lot. The debris will blow out from under them with the currents and fish movement part of the time and there is less for you to vacumn. You will have to slide a cleaning sponge across the bottom glass of the tank, for some debris will stick, but it is EVER so much easier than gravel.

The soccer game analogy is CORRECT! Mine throw rocks around all the time and my husband swears they are trying to break out of the tank! It gets very noisy at times. I usually go in to talk to them when they do it (probably rewarding the behavior!), but if I do not they then progress to shredding plants!

i do really like having my tank in the bedroom...the fish i'll be getting won't be super big, so maybe he won't start that until later, when i can move him to a larger tank...hopefully.
i really like the idea of pebbles, like the smooth flat black ones, because i think it'll add to the effect of a japanese garden in my room. the problem is, we went to lowe's last night to price them, and they didn't carry any. i know they're sold as landscaping rocks, so hopefully home depot will have them today. is there anywhere else that might be more likely to have them? i'll probably check the pond store down the street, and see if they've got that sort of thing. they specialize in koi ponds...i don't remember seeing something like that there before though, so i'm not going to get my hopes up.

When I was searching for rocks I wanted the multi colored smooth pebbles and all I could find was the black ones. I bought black ones, white ones, etc. but finally ended up going to a landscaping rock company. They supply huge boulders and all types of stone for landscaping purposes.

I was allowed to pick up all the loose fallen rock that I wanted, for they did not want to take the time or expense to pick it up themselves. I found pink quartz to add to what I had, as well as the beautiful multi-colored polished stone I was looking for and I paid nothing for it. I had a wonderful morning putzing among the rocks finding good things!

Try a stone/landscaping company. You will definately find more different types, and the price - even full price - is usually only 2 cents a pound or so.

Good luck. Your tank will look awesome when it is all decorated out!

oh poop. i wish i had seen that before i went out this morning...
i found exactly what i was looking for at the local pond fish store. it was like, $1.29 a lb though, but i was so excited to find it, i went ahead and got it. oh well. i spent $11...not so bad i suppose. i boiled my rocks, and after they cool off i'm going to set them up in there and start adding the water.
thanks for your help guys!

Sounds like you did just fine, for if you found just what you wanted at what is a rather reasonable cost, that is all that counts!

Happy tanking!

i put them in my tank, and they look absolutely awesome! i'm so excited...