Pico Substrate Advice

[ReefHog10]

I have a 8 gallon pico, up and running for about a year with sand bottom . Only livestock are a couple of clownfish, a few hermits and a cleaner shrimp. Have recently put in some rock flower anemones as well. Question is this, I really like the look of the RFAs on a gravel substrate (like you see online in sales) but would need to remove the sand, I assume, to do that. What are pros/cons of sand v gravel with minimal livestock? (I find myself frustrated by the sand more than not due to it never really looking clean (too small for gobies and maybe too small for conch?) and the RFAs staying half buried during the day when I want to see them), but don’t want to create more problems. Interested in others experiences. Thanks!

 

[blaxsun]

I love fine sand like oolite. Whenever I had thicker substrate I found the amount of crap that filtered through into the sand bed was really atrocious (this includes more gravel-like substrate). Try putting a couple of nassarius snails in your tank or a very small conch. They do wonders for the surface.