I should be changeing it

I like a thin layer of gravel at the bottom of the tank. (1" or less) Its easy to clean with my Python and it Keeps the cycle very stable so i dont have to worry about losing it if i do huge water changes.

But if you wanta any real water plants you
need 2" of gravel

My 55 gallon has about 1 inch of pea gravel. Fake plants also.

I have a very thin layer of gravel since I am taking it out a little at a time. I have a bunch of river rocks.

I use about a half an inch, too many problems with thick gravel. Planning on trying "river rocks" in one of my next tanks.

I took out all of my gravel because I had a goldfish choke on it.
Three of my tanks have just a bare bottom. My other three larger tanks have a few river rocks spread out not touching any others. This has really helped keep my nitrates down.

Nancy

I have about 1-1.5 inches of gravel. I keep it uneven on purpose because I like the texture it gives the bottom of the tank. I have hornwart for a live plant. It doesn't have roots and it grows like mad. It's nice cause you can just kinda wedge
part of it in the gravel and it grows.

about an inch of gravel in my 20gal with about two inches of "pond dirt" under it for the plants. the 30gal has about two inches of gravel or more but is covered with larger river rocks.

-black

I started out with a thin layer of gravel but had to add more over time to keep the plants anchored. I like the look.

Well, i just moved my gravel from my 20 gallon to my 55, so there is not much gravel.. Im not sure if i shoudl just get more gravel or big stones, i think im going to get stones.

Sometime this week im going to get some bubble eyes hopefully. im going to have no gravel or ornaments in there tank, just incase it pops there sacks

But i do have alot of gravel in my other tank

I have a thin layer of gravel but i wish i had known better before i put it in there. I am planning on taking it out when i switch tanks.

Fior my next tank im planing to go with
river rocks,Or large pebbles.

I didn't vote because I have some glass dishes that contain gravel for plants to grow in. Otherwise the tank has some rocks on the bottom. :-)

My 30 g-long has Large polished river rocks and small river rocks. around...15 lbs of them along with terra cotta pots with anacaris, and amazon sword. and 3 fake plants, 1 I have no idea it was the girl at the lfs gave it to me, anyway I also have crushed coral under everything/.and it gets terribky dirty if i dont vaccum it 1 time a week sometimes 2. So I wanted to go with bare bottom but I love the river rocks so much .

i have gravel in both my gf tanks and my betta tank too. i like the look of it mainly, and it helps the bacteria for the cycle etc. i'd guess between 1 and 2 inches deep in each tank. but i vacuum them well!!!!! :goldfish

I have big gravel. no more than an inch or so. so therefore my babies dont get choked. I am sure cleaning is alot easier when there is no gravel

I couldn't vote because I have 7 tanks, and I have different things in them. Four have a thick layer (2-3" gravel) and are heavily planted. Two are bare bottom and one has a very thin layer of gravel

I have gravel, some larger stones and some coloured glass beads as well as plants and a plant pot on it's side. Anything to make my fishs' environment nice for them.

I got genaric tank gravel and anacharis plants and some bulb things i got, looks pritty decent

In my 55 gallon I have just enough small gravel to cover the bottom(less than a half inch). My 5 gallon betta tank is the same way. I like the look of gravel, but don't care for the problems that thick layers can cause.

I'm trying to get rid of my gravel 2c at a time and its taking _forever_! I plan on leaving a sparse layer of natural river pebbles (something for them to pick through, but not enough to cover the bottom) and then putting a buncha larger stones in the tank. My new sport of passion is hiking the White Mountains in NH (where I grew up) and I always manage to find some interesting granite or quartz pieces to bring back to add to the fishtank. I cant wait for summer!

I have a think layer of gravel, it's spread very thinly, it's easy to make a bare spot in the tank when I am rearranging something. I also have glass beads in it.

I would like to have more gravel in my tank, but I hate buying it. It is such a rip off, 5 bucks for a tiny bag I would much rather buy other things, like plants or ornaments then gravel haahaa.

I'm going to wait until I get my next tank, that I will be putting neutral coloured gravel in and planting, then I'll go nuts on the gravel.

Jessica

i have an 8 inch comet. i keep 1 1/2 inches of run of the mill gravel in his tank. none of the granules are big enough to get stuck in his mouth though (hes a big boy!).

I have about 1-1.5" of smooth stones (they avg about 1/2" in diameter) on the bottom.

Personally, I like gravel on the bottom. It catches the poop and keeps it from floating around too much. Whereas, if there's nothing, the poop hangs out on the bottom and starts to disintegrate. And when the fish swim by, their currents pick up the poop and swirl it around. Eeeyuu.

And also, being the anal-retentive person that I am, I like the feeling of cleaning the gravel and seeing all that gunk getting sucked out through the tube.

i have grav in my tank i swer by it because it helps a lot here is some things it dose

you can not see the mess fish make

it helps plants grow

it keeps fake plants down

fish like to play with it its good for bac thats where a lot of it lives

it looks good

and so on

I have no gravel at all. Yes it looks nice but I couldn't care less what it looks like as long as fish are ok. I have a few large stones (including a planting rock) and a few large pebbles, they cover about 1/10th of the bottom if that. Cleaning it is so easy, food doesn't get lodged into the bottom and any worms can't dive into the bottom, so filter either sucks them up or fish eat any (if I ever get any). Nitrates stay nice and low too

Here's one photo of my bare-bottom tanks...

http://home.comcast.net/~k.boragine/images...2003_fish24.jpg

I have small river rocks in my tanks which cover about 3/4 of the bottom area. I would never go back to gravel again. This system is very easy to keep clean, my babies can't choke, and it is pleasing to the eye, but most of all is the ease of cleaning the bottom of the tank, NOTHING gets overlooked, not food is missed on the clean up. I also like the way the mirrored bottom shows through.