To each their own!  Let me begin by saying that I am not a fan of gravel but there was also a time that I wasn’t a fan of sand substrates.  Once I reentered the hobby of fish keeping I briefly employed a gravel substrate and plastic tank decor until the natural tank bug struck me hard.  Almost immediately I transformed the substrate from gravel to sand in my many tanks.

The biggest of those task at the time was my 55 gallon which housed my freshwater eel.  The black gravel substrate in the tank wasn’t ideal at it was scarring the little guy as he glided across the bottom of the tank.  With a little help from the wonderful mother the tank was torn down and rebuilt with a nice sandy substrate that brought a new experience to my eel.

My daughter Maya has a beautiful planted tank in her bedroom, one that we highlighted in her first blog post a couple of days ago.  Despite the beauty of her tank the princess of the house wanted more and the princess gets what she wants.  A few months back I purchased bright green gravel to suit her needs but due to the day job at the time I just not take the time to complete the project.

With kids across the nation being home for Thanksgiving Break we both decided that the time was perfect to jazz up her natural aquarium.

First we grabbed the bucket and the gravel and rinsed the gravel with water to rinse any debris that could cloud the tank and/or poison her fish.  Maya then used a small scoop to spread the gravel above her sand substrate.  Despite not being a fan of gravel I must say that the finished project came out perfect.  Maya is really beginning to get the hang of aquascaping which is a great thing.