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I need to know what my other options are for putting at the bottom of my aquarium besides gravel2007-11-24 23:35:45

1) a blue bottom, with a small islan in one of the corners (made out of sand colored gravel) and some palm tree ornaments. You can do the bottom with background plastic (sold in rolls at the fish store) taped to the outside of the bottom glass.

2) a black bottom, with potted plants. You can do the bottom with background plastic (I wouldn't leave plain glass on the bottom. It freaks my fish out to see inside their cabinet. They won't go near the clear areas). The potted plants can be real or fake, but it leaves everything pretty easy to clean.

3) large (2-6 inch) reef rock looking rocks, with some coral ornaments. (This would actually probably be harder to clean)

You've got to keep in mind, as well, that your biological filtration bacteria (which convert your toxic fish waste into harmless stuff) need surface area to grow, which they usually get from your gravel. Keeping a flat surface on the bottom will make things easier to clean, but you should consider keeping ornaments or fake plants to increase the surface area of your tank. You can also invest in a biowheel filter. This is a filter that passes your water over a spinning ridged wheel that's made of some form of mesh, that provides a perfect environment for your bacteria.

Happy fishkeeping.

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I have large smooth river rocks in my tank. They look -awesome- and I can see when there's 'gross' stuff in there. All I do to keep it clean is do a partial water change. I stir up the water to make sure the 'gross' stuff starts to float around, then I scoop out the desire amount of water. I replace it with fresh water, add the appropriate amount of non-iodine salt per gallon and dump the water in (which stirs up the water again). What I don't remove is stirred up and sucked into the filter. The filters themselves I do thorough cleaning of (change out the filter, replace carbon, ect.).