Weighted aquarium gravel/sand

[Greenmoon]

I was looking for a new sand to put in my axie tank and I came across 'weighted aquarium gravel'... It's a lot finer then regular gravel and is weighted and relitivy heavy. The axie breeder I got my axie from said that he uses it in all of his tanks and it never lifts from the bottom when the axie swims or is eating and he has never had an axie swallow any...
Apparently it is also cleaned easily and doesn't affect water quality.
It sounds like a great option and seems safe but i would feel a lot more comfortable buying it and having it in my tank if I could have some opinions on whether it would be safe for my axie, thanks

 

[LSuzuki]

Do you have a brand name or anything? I did a quick google, but didn't find anything, probably because "weighted" and "aquarium" come up so often with respect to other products.

It sounds intriguing, but I really wonder what makes it "weighted", if it is indeed so weighted that an axie snapping food doesn't pick it up.

 

[allied123]

No offense but we see quite a few people here with baby axies with gravel in their stomachs because the "breeder never had it in all their tanks and never had a problem" it sounds like a bad idea, not worth the risk. Why not just stick with sand or bare bottom?

 

[Greenmoon]

No offense but we see quite a few people here with baby axies with gravel in their stomachs because the "breeder never had it in all their tanks and never had a problem" it sounds like a bad idea, not worth the risk. Why not just stick with sand or bare bottom?

Thanks it does sound safer I was just after some opinions to be sure... Out of my own preference I dislike having sand as it stirs up easily and makes a mess of the tank and for the short time I had sand I discovered my Axolotl seemed to enjoy eating a lot of it. i understand that a bare bottom tank is probably the best option for me but I feel like there needs to be something more, do you know of anything else I could use in my tank??

 

[Skudo09]

I have not heard of weighted gravel before. I probably would not take the risk personally. Some have used slate but a member posted a great idea (wish I could remember who) where they used a 3D background as a substrate and it looked great and would be fairly easy to keep clean. The downside is that you would need to drain the tank and dry it to stick it down with aquarium safe silicon and wait for the silicon to cure before resetting the tank back up. Another option would be large pebbles bigger than the axolotls head but debris tend to get stuck in the gaps and can be hard to keep clean.

 

[LSuzuki]

I've heard you can use certain kinds of tile, also. What I would love is thin squares of slate, since big tiles are so heavy, but I don't know if such a thing exists

I am still wondering how they "weighted" the gravel. Curiousity, really. I can't think of a way to make gravel heavier except with something like lead, and that wouldn't be safe for aquatic creatures in general.