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Hi All:
I am creating a new tank especially for my catfish and was wondering about the strata. I thought that the natural habitate for cory's is mainly sandy and was thinking of going this route but my source of information at the pet shop (believe it or not a marine biologist) told me that sand was not the way to go. He said it was too hard to keep clean. I want to make a habitate that is plant, and feature rich more like an ecosphere so vacuming out the tank may not be too feasible. Any ideas as to whether to stick to gravel or is a sandy bottom a good idea?

Hi there. welcome to planet catfish.

a lot of substrate in a corydoras's natural habitat of small creeks will be mud (and also sand and gravels in places). obviously, this can't be recreated in a tank.

if you want a heavily planted tank, gravel's not the best idea. sand's your only option.

yes, a thick layer of sand is in danger of going anoxic, but if the tank is very heavily planted, the roots should oxidise the sand preventing toxic sulphides building up.

something like half an inch of peat covered with an inch of soft silver sand will work a treat. the corydoras will prefer to dig in sand than gravel.

planted tanks are tricky to keep clean. a power filter should keep a lot of it in suspension and remove it. otherwise you can do it manually and carefully, siphoning with something like an airline that won't damage the plants.

it you don't keep to many fish, messy fish or overfeed, you should be fine.

and don't get a panaque!!!!!

Peat?
is that for the root structure of the plants?
Wouldn't break down over time?
As for the panaque, i learned my lesson with a pleco that I nicknamed the 'bulldozer'.

plants love to get their roots into peat. it's full of nutrients.

there's a chap called sidguppy (and other people of course) in the forum who know a lot more about planted tanks than i. PM him if he doesn't respond to this....

I found that when I plan for strata, it always gets messed up after the first gravel cleaning! In my latest tank, I've put in a combination of substrates. I love Cories and live plants. I love the results of the clay-based substrates, but I can't stand all the rinsing. So, I combined a few of the other live plant substrates out there, not just laterite or the Flourite. I mixed this with some gravel and made a 2" base. Along with this, I found an aquarium specialty place on the internet that has a very good variety of rocks for freshwater tanks. Like red jasper, purple jasper, quartz, etc. They come in a variety of colors and sizes. I called these folks and asked them what would go well in a tank with Cories. They were very helpful and picked out some amazing rocks at a reasonable price. I also have 2 large pieces of driftwood. Sand worries me, although I've read that some folks like to use it in a thin layer if they have heating cables for plants. I'd probably suck it up with the gravel cleaner and have to call a plumber!

I also use a combination of substrates. I have tried layering peat, flora base and then Flourite on top. The plants love this setup. I also keep some Corydoras pygmaeus in this tank. They are small though. I would also suggest setting up the tank with plants and let it run for at least a month to let the root structure of the plants really get established. When setting up the tank, If you terrace or slope the subtrate, the mulm will collect in the lowest area of the tank. If you leave this area clear of plants, it makes it easy to vaccum up the waste. Also check out my signiture link below to see a totally different type of setup using river rock and using specific substrates for plants in limited areas.

Cheers, Whitepine

verynice tank setup you have there whitepine.

Whitepine, you mentioned Flourite, but in your picture your top layer can't possibly be porous clay. It's way too smooth, and doesn't look like Flourite at all.
I put in a question not long ago about using clay substrates with corydoras, and every single response said "Don't do it!", and emphasized the use of sand.

I set up a tank using black sand, and it's great.

Racoll, I have a Panaque in that tank, and he's like a kid in a sandbox! I knew this would happen, so I didn't "plant" anything, but tied all the plants (ferns) to wood, or weighed them down with round glass beads.

So, are cories okay with the sharp-edged clay substrates or not?

Deb

Sorry, correction, I see now that you mean two different tanks. But the question is still the same:
Are you letting your cories roam over the clay surface, and have you noticed any barbel damage?

Deb

Here's the Tank


You could always set up the tank and put a layer of sand on top of the flourite. I haven't noticed barbel damage on the cories in the tank with flourite.


I would say that they actually have pretty long barbels for pygmies.

It looks great, and you are right - their barbels do look long for pygmies. Well, if they've been in there long, it's a significant piece of evidence in favor of Flourite.
I love Flourite, but all the advice from this website was strictly in favor of sand.
I like the sand, it's great for this particular tank.
I have plenty of ferns, and moss. I'm floating Limnophila, and so far it's fine. The panaque churns up a storm, and changes the landscape every day.

I think it would be helpful if, down the road, we could check in with you to see if those barbels still look healthy.
It's possible that the people who gave their opinions did not actually ever use the clay substrates.

Your planted tanks are beautiful.

Deb

I have had these pygmies since November...