substrates

Question
my question is: With your experience what is the best substrate for a 55 gallon freshwater tropical aquarium, the inhabitants are plecostomus, crawdads(crayfish), kribensis, rosy barbs,bala sharks, lace catfish, convict cichlids, and angelfish.

Answer
Hi Lance,
I've found that just about any substrate works well in most all aquarium setups. It's kind of a matter of personal choice and what you like best. I really like the look of sand in aquariums. However, sand does really a little more care than gravel to prevent it from becoming impacted and "anerobic" in deep areas. So you have to take time to disturb deep down in the sand bed frequently and making sure to not miss any corners or the sand under decorations, ect.. This problem can be greatly prevented by just having a moderate amount of sand in the tank. About an inch should be fine. More sand just means more work and trouble to make sure it is clean by carefully vacuuming and disturbing the entire bed frequently. Sometimes sand can cloud your water also, very fine types of sand may never rinse completely clean and when in your aquarium, any disturbance may cause a big cloud of dust to swirl up in the water. But eventually this problem should be able to eliminated through good filtration and maybe several water changes.
I've also used a larger grain sand sometimes called "Silica" Sand" it's much larger grained than play sand but it still has that "sand" look to it. I've had very good sucess with it and I've used it in many of my aquariums. It's larger grains are big enough to be vacuumed with a normal gravel vacuum, yet they are still small enough for bottom dwelling fish like Cories to dig their noses into. ;-) Plus it's very easy to keep clean. It looks really natural with just a few sprinklings of gravel on top of the sand in places.
If you want to go with sand, you might want to try to look for Silica sand. I found it at my local pet shop in a large 50 pound bag. Don't know if it would be available in your area but it's worth checking on.

Now with gravel, I always prefer the smaller grained types of gravel. Because first, they are easy to clean, and second it looks better in the tank, and third smaller grained gravel prevents much food particles from settling between the crevices, unlike large chunky type gravel that provides lots of spaces for uneaten food to hide and pollute your tank. Smaller grained gravel is also better for aquatic plants.
With gravel you'd want about 1-2 inches. If this tank is going to be planted then an extra inch may be needed to provide plenty of anchorage for the plants. Natural shades of gravel show off your fishes color than blue or green would. Darker gravels tend to cause fish to show brighter more vivid colors.

Sounds like you have quite an interesting variety of fish and aquatic critters for your 55 gallon. But you might want to be careful with the Convict cichlids. They can be very territorial and very aggressive, especially if you end up with a pair that decides to spawn. They may take over half the tank and leave the other poor fish cowering in the corner. You might want to be careful about that or rethink about the potential problems they may cause if they are added to your tank.

I really hope this helps!
Best of luck and happy fishkeeping!
Karen~