PlanetCatfish.com

Who uses sand and who uses gravel
Was talkin to someone about going from gravel to sand but, I got a 75g tank

I keep a substrate that has sand with particles up to about 2mm in size. Most of my tanks are planted and this works well for the plants. It also works well for any fish, especially catfish, which dig in the substrate. A few of my tanks have play sand in them but I don’t like it as well as the sand with the larger pieces in it.

The advise from both Ian Fuller and H-G Evers when it comes to Corys is to have sand, not bare bottom, and not coarser stone materials. In nature, corys are found over fine sand, muddy bottoms and leaf-litter. It is unusual to find corys over stony and rock river beds (or so says the people who collect them in nature, at least)...

All of my tanks have sand in them, no matter what fish - it's a long story, but I'm just restoring my tanks to have fish in them, and the new substrate in four of my curent five tanks is a medium grain sand, the big RIO400 is a mix of fine gravel and sand - that's the tank where the only corys I've got at home lives - I can see four of (out of the C. weitzmanni right now, going about like corys do...

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Mats

Fine sand or a blend of 75% fine sand with 25% something like
Fluorite works well for Corys. You can use just enough to barely cover the bare bottom or enough to plant plants.

would it be a good idea to change my substrate
whats a good brand of sand and fine gravel

If you want sand, then most DIY stores sell childrens play-sand, which is good. Also, pool suppliers will have pool-filter sand, which is also a good option.

Aquarium substrate (other than "fancy stuff for planted tanks" and some types of colour(ed) sand) is too expensive to ship around the world, so what you get in the US will be different from what we find here in Europe. Avoid coral sand, as it will make your water harder.

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Mats

I use sand in all our tanks works well, agree with Mats take a look in your diy stores of cheaper options than silica sand

All my tanks got sand. I had a road builder put a big-bag on my yard. If it was bit sharp, all rough edges are now, 8 years later it smoothed out. But I did not have any problems tesing it (a liter of sand in a bucket, and the handswirl it for 5 minutes. If your hand get bloody, the sand is too sharp)

Costs? 80 euros for 30 tanks (14.000 liters, or over 3000 UK gallon)

In nature, corys are found over fine sand, muddy bottoms and leaf-litter. It is unusual to find corys over stony and rock river beds (or so says the people who collect them in nature, at least)...

The above is not a correct statement. Each Corydoras sp lives over the substrate of its natural habitat. Those, for example, that live in hillstreams are always found over rock river beds. Corys do not move to where there is a substrate they like, they are adapted to live over the substrate of their natural environment. Take a look at this cory habitat pic http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/im ... ge_id=3040

Fine sand or a blend of 75% fine sand with 25% something like

I really agree with this. Most aquariums should have a substrate of mixed sand/gravel sizes. It looks far more natural and it is certainly more natural to the fishes. I like a mix of about 75% sand, 20% small gravel and 5% large gravel.

-Shane

That picture looks like there is quite a bit of sandy substrate along with bigger stones.

But, yes, I stand corrected, corys are found over all kinds of substrate. I still believe that the right substrate for a tank with corys is "based on sand". My tanks do have a bit of larger stones as well as sand - I like the look of it, more than anything.

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Mats

In Uruguay I collected Gymnogeophagus above rocks. No sand around. Still they do like to be able to sift sand in my tanks.

The rocks were covered with a firm layer of detritus, and as I will not provide them with such a layer, I think I should at least provide them with sand.

Therefore I agree fully with MatsP - regardless of the natural substrate, a substrate based on sand would be the best in the tanks.

But, Corydoras coming from rocky areas might also be provided with rocks

Hi all,
I use sand, the only time I don't is if I have a tanks where I want a lot of flow. In these I use a mixture of 3 sand : 1 gravel, it helps if the sand and gravel are slightly different colours. By this I don't mean red and green, in the UK I use silica sand (off-white) and flint gravel (mixed brown, tan, beige and white). I pour the sand/gravel in, add the hardscape, a handful of crumpled dead leaves and turn the filters on. I give it an occasional stir and after a couple of days the current will have sorted the sediment dependent upon the flow. Areas of fast flow will have gravel and areas of lower flow sand, some areas may have been cleared all the way to the bottom glass. For any cleared areas, I turn the filter off and place some pebbles or cobbles (on a piece of egg-crate or polystyrene). I always have planted tanks, so I then plant the Cryptocoryne etc in the sandy areas. I then turn the filters back on, now somewhere in the tank will be a dead spot where the dead leaves have collected. I put a small slate here and use this to syphon any organic debris from (I always have a sponge on filter intakes, as I don't want any organic debris in the filter).

I got this idea from one of Haarvard Stoeres' great photo postings, where the current had sorted his substrate.

cheers Darrel.

I use a fine gravel (1-3mm), and there are some larger pieces present (8-10mm), I've never had a problem with their barbels being worn down, but I will use sand-gravel mixture for my next set up.