hello i am kind of new and was wondering what the name of the sand everyone used for the bottom of there tank i like the looks of it better than gravel

also is there any advantage or disadvantage of sand over gravel

i dont plan to have any live plants right away if that matters just trying to plan out my tank before i buy it

also will chiclids and sharks get along or dicus and angel and sharks get along
i know the chiclids are aggressive but not sure on the rest

As far as the name of the sand there are plenty of varieties to choose from, if you are planning on cichlids i would say to buy cichlid sand, it generally comes in a 20lb bag and is black and white grain. with cichlids you can mix sharks with them, discus are tougher to care for and are a very very gentle fish, if i were to give any advice on this at all i would say if you are doing discus only put discus with discus, i would not recommend anything like sharks or angels with discus as sharks can be aggressive as well as angels are very aggressive even though they are slow movers they will pick at the fins of the other fish. you can do live plants in sand however they wont last too long as the roots will have nothing to cling to or to dig through, every time you clean the tank and sift the sand the plants will come up. there is a black substrate that you can buy that's a bio substrate made specifically for plants i will post a picture soon of my planted 55 gallon aquarium. so you can see how that looks, i did mix a 5lb bag of white grain sand to add just a little bit of salt and pepper look to the bottom of the tank. if you would like you can email me at FishArt14411@hotmail.com if you have more questions or concerns.

Good luck and welcome to the addiction!!
Brandon