Nice base to keep ph stable.

[X-Pande-R]

hey guys i have a 40 gallon african setup, what's a good base i can have ontop of my existing gravel???? Sand (crush coral)? Also will this reduce them from digging up?

[Osiris]

well, u could do crushed coral but i am pretty sure they will still dig it up lol. And if u put sand will be pretty hard to keep up on them toxic pockets since u would have gravel in bottem. I would just removeit and use crushed coral or some sort of aragonite sand

[X-Pande-R]

what do you mean by "will be pretty hard to keep up on them toxic pockets since u would have gravel in bottem"??

[cameraman_2]

here is an article about how to maintain sand and what types of sand are available. http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/sand.php

[Osiris]

well with sand bottems and if it's not moved or stirred once a month begin to create toxic gas pockets which in turn can harm your fish. Usually just a sweep with the gravel vac takes care of it, but if u have gravel on bottem andthen put sand on top, sand will seep through the gravel and fill it in the areas of where gravel didn't fill. So, when you go to stir the sand, your going to have gravel on the bottem, which could very well be a pain to mess with, i would do a crushedcoral mixed with white sand would come out very nice.