Habitat - Indoor :: what gravel to use ?

[m4tth3w]

uhmmm, hi.
soo I finally decided to buy a bigger tank for my turt today. and im just wondering can i use pea gravel from a planting store ? im just wondering cause im really worried that my turt would die if i put him in before asking the experts =D

[aal]

Refrain from small mouth sized gravel. If a turtle eats it by accident, well, its gonna' suck for it. Get large sized river rocks, they are easy to clean and look attractive.

[beaner]

When I was given Pepe, he already had small gravel in his tank and soon after, I noticed he was eating it! I learned that this can cause a dangerous bowel impaction, so I had to remove them immediately. I searched for some affordable, large rocks (I live in the city, so I don't really have anywhere to go hunting for outdoor rocks), but everything I found was pretty pricey. So, I gave up.

Then, one day, I was at the store, and just happened by the hobby area and saw these bags of rocks that are for putting in a vase. They were as big as my turtle's head and look beautiful. Got enough to cover a 55 gallong tank for $15! I don't know what would be on rocks for vases so I cleaned them very well before putting them in the tank...I don't know if that's necessary or not, but I figured better safe than sorry.

And he seems to like them. He digs around in them all the time.

[Kemul]

I tend to discourage the use of gravels of any size. If it's less than or equal to the
size of the turtle's head, the turtle might eat it. In any case, gravel traps debris
and that makes the water dirty faster.

But that's just me...

[Abomb]

Agree

I used to have large river rock in the bottm of my tank, the darn thing was getting brown in less than a week with 2 filters rated for my volume tank. Now after removing the rocks and replaceing them with a decorative ceramic tile i have not seen any noted change in color. Rocks gravel and any substrate that is porus enough to hold poo is bad news save yourself go with bare esssentials.
Not to mention adding an extra 5 gallons of swinging room to the tank

[adam85491]

I had half dollar sized river rocks in my tank at one point. So much stuff got stuck under it I took most of them out. The bare bottom was boring, so now I have a sand bottom, which keeps the crap on top and either gives it a chance to be sucked up or be eaten by the bottom feeders. Well, my minnows got eaten and my crayfish has seemingly dissapeared, so the later isn't going to happen right now...the crayfish was in the tank just fine for a few months and then one day I decided to check it out and when I looked in the little cave it hides in I didn't see it. There's no remains either....

[zoologist]

gravel, as everyone said, is a no-no.

large river rocks look nice to start out with but they trap fecal matter and dirt at the bottom of the tank where the filter cant reach it. you wont notice until you try to move the rocks and the water swirls up in a brown cloud.

sand is popular because it is easy to take care of. it keeps all the mess on top for the filter to pick up and it is easy to maintain. you have to stir it every couple of months to stop poisionous gas from building up.

barebottom is the easiest way to go but it provides the least amount of enrichment to your turtle.