Gravel or Sand ?????????????

Hi All
Right i am setting up a New Tank for Elvis the Oscar
now with a blank canvas what would you all Suggest..!!!
Sand or Gravel????????????????????????
Thanks

GRAVEL!

thats a personal opinion by the way.
i just dont like the look of sand. but if you want a fine substraight have you considered a more finer type gravel.

When I first set up my tank I had a sand substrate, and loved the way it looked tbh. Unfortunately I used Coral sand (big learning curve in the beginning!) which screwed up the pH and so had to be removed. I then replaced it with gravel, but took a 5yr old with me when I bought it - so ended up with a bit of a bling look

I think for maintenance gravel is probably easiest. With sad you have to sort of hoover the poo etc off the top, holding the gravel vac above the surface otherwisde you get the sand all swirling up into the water. You also have to be careful to make sure there are no build up of gas pockkets in the sand which can be fatal to the fish, whereas with gravel you can really give it a good deep clean.

As bg says, you can get some very fine gravel that is sand coloured, and that might be something to consider.

Fine Gravel it is then.
like you say you can give it a good old dig round with the vac
sand does look great but i wouldn't want Elvis getting it in his eyes now would i lol
now bogwood? yes or no.?
thanks for your suggestions guys

bog wood yes. no sharp bits lol my male sev is blind in one eye because of bogwood from the lfs.

but you also want to boil it for a while to get all the tannins out.

tannins make the water go all tea colour (as far as i know its not harmfull to fish)
and make sure if you do boil it do it outside as it stinks

i forgot to mention with cichlids especialy americans like elvis and my guys. they do dig pits lots of em and not small.

with sand you wont have to constantly fill in there holes.

but it is fasinating to watch.

I would go for a decent size piece - it looks good in the tank I think.

Some lfs do sell pieces that have been presoaked in their tanks which might be worth asking about - thats how I got mine. It was in one of their tanks with Guppies, and they sold it to me. It saved having to go through all the palaver of soaking it for weeks to get rid of the tannins or whatever it is that colours the water.

If you do do that though, I would soak it in a bucket of boiling water foor an hour or so just in case there are any bugs/eggs etc on there that you dont want getting into your tank. I did that and had no problems at all.

While I do like the look of sand in some instances, I prefer gravel - if only for the fact that I LOVE gravel cleaning. There's something immensely satisfying about seeking all that gunk fly up the tube..