Greetings,

I've searched, I've read, but I still need to hear it one more time..
sorry for being the millionth and one person to ask this over and over again:

I've read that gravels and sand are not advisable for goldies because it is a pain to perform cleaning of tanks.

BUT, I still see some member's pics with gravel / sand or pebble looking objects on their tank floor. How do you go about maintaining the tank? or you just leave the food wastes, fish wastes, etc there because it is how it should be in the nature world?

Tell me please. Also, I think it is possible to attach pictures to this message board, so can all kind members please post pics of your tank floor here? Might be good also, if u can get your little goldie in the picture as well.

Thanks so much!!

Although my tank photo has gravel in it, I am in the process of removing it all. One of my fish has gotten it stuck in his mouth and the gravel ALWAYS has so much poo and debris stuck in it. I gravel vacuumed weekly when I changed the water but never felt like I got the gravel clean enough.

I'm using large (1 and 1/2 to 2 inch) river rocks plus some glass vases (filled with gravel and plants) to decorate. Originally I wanted to use bonsai planters but a friend of mine planted the thought in my mind that toxic chemicals might leach out into the water. I looked at Japanese "food safe" dishes but the look wasn't right. When everything is complete and I solve my cloudy water problem I'll post an updated tank photo.

I think if you gravel vacuum weekly and use a 3/4 to 1 inch layer you might be all right (my gravel was 2 inches in places)

All my tanks have gravel in them. Mostly cause I do live plants in my tanks and some of them require a good substate to them. My gravel is the normal gravel you can find in most pets stores its the small pepple gravel almost like sand but not the next size up from that. some people here use River rocks to there tanks too.

I think in general it is in a preffernce of using or not using gravel. But I can tell you that the normal gravel that you see that is bigger in size like the red and blue can cause a problem if you fish like to pick it up.


This is my tank (koko)

hi guys,

thnx for the replies, and koko, thnx for the attached pics. Would appreciate more pics with gravel floor from members to give me confidence in adding them too.

So, the general "rule" is, the pebbles/gravels should be small so that if the goldies ever swallow them, it's ok?

btw koko, do u have a UGF in your base? how often do you clean your pebbles? do u dig them all up and wash?

i thot of adding either gravel / pebbles that are very small, almost like sand, or the biggest i can find, so there is no chance for even the biggest goldie to swallow..

I have not thought of a maintainence schedule, but i thought that since in the natural environment, nobody go down to the pond and clean all the sand and gravels, it might be ok to just perform simple siphoning without much stirring and disturbing the "natural" wastes at the bottom of the tank.

i'll take a walk to my lfs and see what i can find.

But you need to remember, in nature, each goldfish has hundreds or thousands of gallons to itself, and there's probably more algae and plants to get rid of the waste, as well as snails and other scavengers. They're eating stuff that was already in the system, while in an aquarium you're adding more and more food (which means more and more waste) every day. With sand it's fine to just suck stuff off of the top, because it can't fall through the sand. But with gravel (which is very unnatural!) gunk falls through and rots there.

just some thing i had to say: my God koko, everytime i see your tank, my heart skips! its so beautiful. i love your tank koko. you truly ARE the goldfish goddess.

Here's a photo of my tank--I swear it looks better in person than in this picture. Eventually I want all live plants but right now the only live plants are growing in the glass dishes with white gravel.

I have two tanks. I have fairly large pebbles so that not even my biggest goldie has been able to fit them in her mouth. I gravel vacuum with a Python, and I try not to disturb the plants and just work around them.

As you can tell from the two photos, yes I am overstocked, but I am going to remedy that next spring with a 125gallon tank.

Here they are!
This one, the large plant on the right has actually been removed to make more space for the goldies.

And here is a very old picture of my second tank, I haven't got any updated ones.

Ok, I'm stupid, but I ran out an took another picture of my big tank, it just that I got an algae eater that really cleaned it up a lot.

Here it is, sorry for all the posts!

OK since I cant ever seem to get a picture to post here is my web site link where u can see pics of my fish which you can see i n the p ics my river rocks
http://www.geocities.com/thumperbuff1/g0ld...l?1044333556860
hope that works

hi guys and gals

Nice and inspiring to see pics here with gravels of some sort at the tank base. Anyway, I quickly ran out and bought coral chips (I know, I know, they'll raise the pH) to fill my tank floor. If ever i get a chance, i'll post a pic here to show off my decorations.

Do keep the inspiring pics coming.

Thanks!!

Here you go, here are g0ldfishgurl's pics:










I hope to get mine up ASAP.
btw, Melle, koko, Obisidian and all that's gonna post your pics, what are the dimensions or your tank?

OMG how, nice of you , I have no idea why I cant ever get this tools to work. Thanks a Bunch, FOr everyone, incase ya wondering, The black oor, and the calico Will&Grace has past away, the dern filter got them , and the Koi and Shubby I was expecting from my sister isnt coming after all, her hubby wants to keep them after all, so I'm going today and get me a BIG black moor, and possible a BIG lionhead. and hubby will come home and be LIKE what have you gone and done now , anywho THANKS A BUNCH:),g0ldfishgurl)(aka-Melanie)(

My tank is a 20 gallon high. Not very big :-( The dimensions are 24" long x 17" tall x 12.25" deep.

Hiya guys

i havent got a full pic of my tank, but you can see the gravel from this pic

here's a pic of my 55 gallons tank floor. Oh and don't mind the goldies

I really enjoyed looking at all the pictures!