Cory substrate?

[bgourami320]

Now, I was going to use very small pea gravel, since it seems smoother then the gravel I've seen at the lfs. A friend said no to that, they'll rub off their little whiskers and have a flat face! He mentions #2 bird gravel, never heard of it, has anyone used it.
Better yet what do you use for your cory's and loaches?

[stevezx2002]

I use Pool filter sand right now, but I am upgrading tanks and looking to change to gravel so I am interested in what others use as well.

[Mgamer20o0]

the pea gravel from lowes/ home depot? i have used it with cories with out problems. sand is a option like stevez2002 said.

[GuppyGirl1230]

I use black aquarium gravel, all of my corys are fine. No injuries, no missing barbels. I have not had a single problem.

[stevezx2002]

Last week I changed from the PFS (shows alot of poop with larger fish) to pea gravel from lowes in my cichlid tank and it looks great, but I think some of the pieces of gravel are a little on the large side for the panda corys I have.
My lowes might get it from a different supplier though any pics of your Pea Gravel Mgamer20o0?

That is a ~5" Turquoise Severum for size comp.
135931

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PFS with pandas
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[nss11110]

i use playsand the cories love it and so do the plants. they even dig in it

[bgourami320]

My neighbor uses sandbox sand, is that what you mean nss? I heard sand compacts and gets really hard, I want to plant the tank would that hurt the plants roots?
Steve I also heard about the pool filter sand, can gravel and sand be mixed? or is that a bit much? Love your tank! That Severum is a beauty! The pfs doesn't look to small but it's light colored and might not show up fish coloring too well, tho your fish look fine against it.

[bgourami320]

Think I will go with the pea gravel, a small sized one and mix a little black eco-complete in with it, we'll see. Setting up this weekend, if it looks awful I'll just change it out. Doing fishless cycle so it might be awhile for fish anyhow.

[jpappy789]

Sand and plants shouldn't be a problem. As for compacting, it can happen, but not very often. Some people manually stir it up and others add something like MTS.

As for mixing, eventually the sand is just going to end up underneath the gravel since the grain sizes are so much smaller.

And as for corys, so long as the gravel isn't sharp they should be fine.

[BettaFishMommy]

cories love to 'snuffle', lol, in sand!

i have a mix of small pea gravel and coarse sand (larger grains but not quite as big as pool filter sand) in my planted tank and i always find that the areas that don't have plants get stirred up by my cories (not right down to the tank bottom though) and they somehow snuffle the sand to the top of the substrate and then hang out in that spot until the sand sifts back down under the pea gravel. snuffle, repeat, snuffle some more, lol.

plants grow great in play sand, IME.

[bgourami320]

Thank you guys I really appreciate it. Just trying to figure everything out before I set the tank up(didn't even pick it up yet!). I just love cory cats and want them to be happy. I'd like to get the Sterbai cory's.
BFM, the mix sounds good to me, I was thinking of making an area of just sand and gravel in most other places, just an area of plain sand for the cory's. But I would think that the gravel would eventually be moved around by whatever other fish are in the tank anyways. But I like that you mixed it, I think I will too.

[BettaFishMommy]

the mix works well, allows for a dense enough substrate for plant roots but has enough 'air space' that anerobic gas pockets don't form (my substrate is nearly 4 inches deep in some spots, lol). this 'air space' also allows nutrients to reach the plant roots through the substrate and i don't gravel vac my planted tank at all.

[GCL]

I set up a tank specifically for some Sterbai cories that were getting barbel erosion in a tank with eco complete.

I used the "Carib Sea Instant Aquarium Freshwater Substrate", the "Peace River" one, and their barbels are growing back nicely.

I was amazed at how "soft" it is. Meaning that, even when handling it and stirring it around it was not at all rough to my skin.
It also holds plants well. I add liquid and tab fertilizer for the plants.

Here's a link to it;

http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+9805+21412&pcatid=21412

[bgourami320]

BFMom they sound adorable! I'm going to check out pool filter sand and see what that is, sounds decent and a mix with small pea gravel I think would look good too.
A friend just told me he's going to give me some Bolivian Rams, he bred them. He has 18 tanks! I think I'm going to go South American themed.

[Ballyhoo]

I use black Gold sand from a hardware store.
It's very fine black sand, I love it

[discuspaul]

I've had several Cories for many months in my planted discus tank, which has large pieces of choc. brown substrate with many pointed edges - looks a bit like pieces of brown slate -1/4" +, to 1/2" in size. No problem at all with their barbels. They scrounge a lot & don't damage themselves - they're smarter, tougher, and perhaps more careful than you think - & can adjust to many different types of substrate. Wouldn't worry about it, if I were you.

[Plague]

I'm using eco complete and so far my peppered cory's aren't affected by it. They don't dig in it or anything but it doesn't hurt them.

[Lillyan]

I use regular play sand. None of my fish ever have an issue with it. Have 6 Green Cory cats on it now in a 90g.

[stevezx2002]

I solved my problem with the big pices of gravel being too big. I went to Big R and they had smaller size pea gravel that looks amazing and it was only $2 a bag.

[Piranha86]

Pea gravel from a pet store (top fin gravel, petco gravel, etc.) is fine for cories, but the pea gravel stevezx2002 had in the sev tank is not. It's kind of rough and wears down their bellies. PlaySand, Pool Filter Sand, etc. is phenomenal for cories, but not silica sand, as it is sharp and grinds down their tummies.

[rainbowcharmer]

In my 46 gallon I have 3 bronze cories - substrate is aquarium gravel. Nothing fancy. No issues, and I've had them for somewhere around 4 years I think.

In the 75 gallon I have a dozen Julii cories - substrate is pool filter sand. I like this MUCH better than the gravel, but that is really just a matter of taste and the fact that I think the sand is prettier.

I'll also say that I've had play sand before and HATED it. It compacted too much and just didn't look nice. The grains were way too small. The pool filter sand has bigger grains and I think it looks a lot nicer, plus it seems to stay cleaner. But again, this is really just an aesthetics thing.

In fact the only cory injury I've had happened in the 75 gallon, but that was because one of them got too close to the little hole I drilled in the intake tube for my eheim, and got one of his barbels sucked into it. I don't know how long he was stuck there. I got him loose and moved him to the QT tank, but it was too much trauma and he died. :( Bummed me out big time.

Anyhow, I really think they'll be ok with anything that isn't real sharp. I plan to eventually change my 46 gallon over to pool filter sand, but it's just too much of a pain in the butt to do it at the moment with all the other things I've got going on. I only want to change it because I think it will look nicer and I like the ease of cleaning (no crap gets stuck down in the sand like it does in the gravel).

[pinkertd]

I also use CaribSea Peace River in all my tanks and I have breeding sterbais, black cories, false julies, and albinos. I do not have barbel erosion. It's the same substrate I used in my large dwarf chain loach tank as well and the clown loaches actually pick it up piece by piece and move it aroud! I wanted something a bit bigger than sand but smaller than regular aquarium gravel and this has been great.
http://www.caribsea.com/pages/products/super_nat.html

Sometimes barbel erosion is not attributable to coarse, sharp substrate, but to dirty substrate and pushing their barbels into that all the time. These cases would just require move thorough gravel vaccing.

[xVitox]

idk if anyone said it but colorquartz by 3m is great if you can find it