I vividly recall the first times I set in the works a 55-gallon tank. I walked into the local pet store, full of hubris and a slightly too-large coffee. I grabbed three bags of agreeable river stones. I thought, Yeah, this looks virtually right. It wasn't. It essentially wasn't. By the epoch I got house and rinsed the dust out, I had barely covered the glass. It looked bearing in mind a desolate moonscape, not the lush Amazonian paradise I had promised my progressive tetras. since then, Ive realized that guessing is for losersor at least for people who as soon as making three trips to the addition in one afternoon. You compulsion an aquarium size calculator substrate calculator that actually accounts for reality, not just some vague "rule of thumb" scribbled on a napkin.

Lets get real for a second. Most people will tell you the within acceptable limits "one pound of gravel per gallon" rule. Im here to tell you that announce is truly garbage. Why? Because a 20-gallon "long" tank has a no question alternative footprint than a 20-gallon "high" tank. Volume doesn't live upon the floor; surface place does. If you desire to know what amount of gravel complete you actually need, you have to end thinking approximately gallons and start thinking more or less square inches and height goals. Its basic geometry, even if we every hated math in tall school.