Best sand for corydoras?

[Scapexghost]

I've had a several tanks but i've never tried sand before. I've also never tried corydoras before. I'm redoing my 10 and i figure it's a good time to try both. I'm leaning towards pigmies so i imagine the finer the better. I know there are problems with very fine sands so what is the ideal middle ground?

[Fish Folk]

On 11/9/2021 at 10:51 PM, Scapexghost said:

I've had a several tanks but i've never tried sand before. I've also never tried corydoras before. I'm redoing my 10 and i figure it's a good time to try both. I'm leaning towards pigmies so i imagine the finer the better. I know there are problems with very fine sands so what is the ideal middle ground?

We actually went with a very fine stone. It looks like sand, but our LFS sells it as the smallest grade of stone available. We bred a load of Corys in this tank once they matured.

 

[Odd Duck]

I’ve had good luck with black blasting sand but I’m going to try pool filter sand in my 20 gallon high for my orange laser cory hopefully breeding tank.  That tank is going to be set up beside the 29 gallon pea puffer tank which has pool filter sand, so I’m going to do the same substrate for a more uniform look since the tanks are different sizes.

I don’t like sand that is too fine since it’s crazy hard to wash before installing, hard to vacuum without sucking it all up, and has more potential for getting compacted and creating anaerobic spots.

[Gator]

I tried pool filter sand in a 10G for Cories and a few plants. The sand stayed packed down so I had to loosen it up several times, then I found out that by stirring the sand, I'd trap roots in the sand that would rot away and introduce methane into my tank and this eventually killed all of the fish. I reverted to aquarium gravel so that I can use a gravel vac which if used on pool filter sand removes the sand.

[Odd Duck]

On 11/9/2021 at 10:20 PM, Gator said:

I tried pool filter sand in a 10G for Cories and a few plants. The sand stayed packed down so I had to loosen it up several times, then I found out that by stirring the sand, I'd trap roots in the sand that would rot away and introduce methane into my tank and this eventually killed all of the fish. I reverted to aquarium gravel so that I can use a gravel vac which if used on pool filter sand removes the sand.

All my tanks with sand also have snails that should keep it from compacting.  The pool filter sand is fairly coarse sand, much coarser than play sand, for instance.  I don’t stir it, but I do poke it once in a while when I’m fiddling with plants and removing old leaves.  The cories do a decent job of stirring the surface.

[Scapexghost]

On 11/9/2021 at 9:24 PM, Odd Duck said:

All my tanks with sand also have snails that should keep it from compacting.  The pool filter sand is fairly coarse sand, much coarser than play sand, for instance.  I don’t stir it, but I do poke it once in a while when I’m fiddling with plants and removing old leaves.  The cories do a decent job of stirring the surface.

What kind of snails do you use for this purpose?

[Odd Duck]

Depends on the tank.  I’ve got ramshorns and bladders and sometimes a couple mysteries in most of my small tanks.  I added MTS to that mix (no mysteries) in the new puffer tank along with a few horned/thorned nerites and may be adding a few marble limpets.  This is my first time with MTS’s since 1975, so we’ll see how that goes before I add any more snails.

The 20 long the peas just came out of has bladders, ramshorns, and a single marble limpet I need to relocate so I can treat for planaria.  The marble limpets will work the edges of the substrate and may dig more than that.  I rarely see them on the surface of the substrate.  Typically on the glass or the wood, but I never see them moving between, so I think they might burrow.  They certainly get a full shell width plus under the substrate while on the glass.  I’ve had a new snail appear in the 20 long a few weeks ago that might be Prambanans or something similar.  I keep finding empty shells, so we’ll see what happens now with the pea puffers out.

My 75 gallon has only mysteries.  My 100 gallon has about 8 species of nerites, a few young mysteries, marble limpets (which may be a nerite species or relative), some chopstick snails (which are the main burrowers), Japanese trapdoors, and a few Prambanans which are new but are also burrowers.

[Flumpweesel]

I pretty much never see my pygmy's on the substrate they sit in the plant and the bogwood but show no interest in the floor. 

  I have very a fine (smoothish)  gravel in my tank and my bigger corys have no issues with that. 

[Andy's Fish Den]

Any tanks of mine that have sand have pool filter sand. It's a little coarser, and I can get a 50lb bag for $12, and a 5lb bag of aquarium sand is anywhere between $5-10 online or in the LFS. I used to rinse it but there never was much dust or dirt come off it, so the last bag I was using the whole bag for the tank, I just dumped it in and filled with water. No cloudiness at all. I don't have a very thick layer of sand in my tanks, maybe 1/2" except my multi tank is thicker, but they keep it stirred up moving the sand with their mouths and re-arranging their shells. I think with the thinner layer of 1/2" the corydoras stir it up searching for food bits that any gases can't build up.