SAND vs GRAVEL go sand!!!

[lovenotthrowdiscus]

ok heres the thing!

i have never had sand in my tanks because the experienced guys say dont do it,but why?

can anyone help?

if my new 6ft tank is going to be in my house in the same place for yrs to come i would really like the sand i think it looks amazing!
one of the fish guys i met when i was living in new zealand showed me his tank setup and it looked amazing!

help help help please?
thanks guys.

[Phlipper]

Sand, or too finer gravel will compact down too hard and not allow nutrients to get to the plant roots as easy, and rot off the plant stems...
...at least this is what I am led to believe. The best overall I have found is a light gravel of about 2mm to 3 mm in size.

[mcloughlin2]

IMO, sand looks way better then gravel in most cases...

Im currentely planning on changing from gravel to sand in another one of my tanks...

Then again, none of my tanks are heavily planted...so im not sure what is the case there..

But it makes siphoning heaps easier as all the junk sits on top of the sand as opposed to getting in and under the gravel... :P

[goldenpigeon]

an idea might be to have sand and only have plants that attach to rocks or driftwood?! plants like java fern, anubias, java moss etc

[wickedglass]

I love sand! One of the keys for sand is to keep corydoras or brochis cats! the cats will filter the sand, and dig through it keeping it nice and loose. one of the arguments against it is, that if it compacts too much it will go anaerobic, but if you keep fishes that will dig through it, it won't be (in my experience) a problem!
I love cories, so I always keep them in every tank I have that's suitable for them and a couple of my tanks use sand as a substrate.
watching a cory hoover through sand is truly a marvel.

[Proteus]

Sand, or too finer gravel will compact down too hard and not allow nutrients to get to the plant roots as easy, and rot off the plant stems...

ahhhhhh, it all depends on what type of sand or gravel you use...

if you use pool filter grade sand, not only will it not compact like other sands, being that it is quartz based, it is inert, so it wont affect your water chemistry in any way.

obviously if you wanted to do a planted tank with sand, use a bottom layer of substrate made up of laterite or any of the commercially available plant substrates. (refer to my post in the Amazon Garden section titled C02 tank - trial run - I used sand and that tank had amazing growth).

[DR.V]

I have used white gravel in the past for planted tank and had strong lighting. After a month or two setting up the tank, the gravel turn abit brownish greenish. Alage grow on them.

Can this happen to pool filter sand Proteus ? Or will it stay nice and white ?

Thanks a lot.

[Proteus]

I have never had algae on my sand, that is not to say it isnt possible

[nicholas76]

As a trial runI used pool filter sand as a base in my 4fter tank. Nothing else no plants etc just a few discus.

After about a month boom! alage explosion the surface ofthe sand was covered in a green alage. I attempted to clean it off but it was growing way to quick.

Ended up sucking the whole lot out and went Bare bottom.

Im thinking maybe I should have gotten a few cat fish to assist.

Will Cories bother discus??? will they eat discus fry / eggs???

[mcloughlin2]

I had come corys in with some of my discus with no problem at all...

Im not sure whether they would eat the discus eggs tho...
I guess its possible but IMO the discus should be able to keep the corys away... :? ?

[DR.V]

Thx for the answer about the sand nick

I kept cory with discus, and never have any problem

HTH

[nicholas76]

thanks for your reply Dr V!

do Cory fish "sift" the sand clean? like those horse face fish?

[Discus 41]

this is the first time i've heard of some other species which are good tankmate for discus as most of the advise i have been given teels me to steer away from any thing in with discus while breeding

[DR.V]

thanks for your reply Dr V!

do Cory fish "sift" the sand clean? like those horse face fish?

Cory will eat any uneaten food that fall to the bottom. And also it will flatten out any uneven gravel surface.

Normally my gravel becomes uneven after I do gravel vac, but after 3-4 days it will be even again.

HTH

[nicholas76]

aah very good mate.

They are now looking to be the perfect tank mate!

One last question however !

Are they purely bottom cruizers? ( i just dont want them eating discus fry or eggs that are layed up high.

cheers

[DR.V]

Nick, I kept my cory in the community tank not in the breeding tank.

There were once that my discus layed eggs in the community tank and the cory did not bother them at all. This is maybe I had them in big tank ??
4x2x2....

You can also keep cory in a bare bottom tank ^^

HTH

[nicholas76]

I should probably explain Doc!

i have that 4 x 2 x 2 which will stock my fire rubys only. When they spawn I just dont want my designated algae eaters to clean the eggs up as well.

just trying to reduce the chances of that happening by finding the right tank mate :)

[DR.V]

That would be too big for a breeding tank nick ?? Im afraid the fry will have trouble finding the parents.

Well, for breeding tank, I never put any other fish. Just the pair itself. Dont want other fish to bother them.

HTH

[nicholas76]

Gday V.

Yeah I know , its not a breeding tank, but a display tank. However its always possible , and i was just trying to find a non eagg eating tank mate that would suit this environment.

I think the expression , have my cake and eat it too fits best hehe

cheers