Have Gravel Currently, But Would They Prefar Sand?

[Lazerus]

Hi….I been thinking about possible fish for my 10gal tank…and doing a bit of research, you know the usual.

Just a question about Dwarf Corydoras or Otocinculas affinis.

One website says these fish especially cories, prefer sand to gravel….I have gravel (each grain is about 5mm in size)…will this be a problem so?

Also, gravel can have adverse effects on them as it causes mouth infections due to them getting cuts or scrapes.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Anyway, if I’m to consider either of these fish, would you recommend that I change my gravel?

If I do need to change it, what type of sand should I get? Will playsand do?…

Also, will it upset my cycle set up if I go messing around? Don’t want to upset the ole cardinals that are already living there!

 

[rhostog]

Is your current gravel smooth or sharp? If it's got sharp edges, then it could cause problems for corys, damaging or wearing away the barbels (whiskers) they use to find their food. Sharp sand, like builder's sand, is also not a good idea.
Playsand is smooth and clean (you should still wash it), and lots of people use it successfully. It shouldn't upset your pH either, though I'm sure you'll be keeping an eye on that anyway.

 

[minxfishy]

Play sand is fine for them, just wash it reallllllllly well before adding it to the tank, otherwise it can take a couple of days for the fog to clear!

Cory's love it, they snuffle along, inhaling the sand then sifting it out through their gills, its fun to watch. But as long as you dont have rough gravel they would be fine with it too, the cardinals wouldnt mind either way.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

otto's are rarely on the substrate so they won't be too bothered, cories will though.

it is most important for cories to have a clean substrate, this is quite easy with sand because instead of the waste slipping down between the gaps in the gravel and festering there it just rests on top of the sand, if you can see it you can easily clean it.... so a lot of people find keeping sand clean is easier than gravel. In addition to this if the gravel is rough they can cut themselves on it, but there's a lot of different grades of gravel so it's a case of pulling a handful out and inspecting how rough the edges are, if it's all round and smooth it shouldn't cause any problems.

Also I just think sand looks better!!

in theory it won't harm the cycle to take out the substrate, however there is the possibility that there's waste trapped in the gravel so when you take the gravel out you stir up a load of muck and get an ammonia spike which you're filter can't handle cos it's still cycling,


now both the otto's and the pygmy cories are a little delicate to acclimitise so you want to wait until the tank has fully cycled and then wait another month or two afterwards so what i would suggest is you leave it alone for now, but a week or two before you're ready for them you start preparing to switch the substrate, over the course of a few weeks do several thorough gravel vac's to mitigate the possibility of a spike from excess waste and then switch it out when you're satisfied the gravel is as clean as is practically possible.

 

[rabbut]

I would do a 75% waterchange while changing substrates personally, it's what I have done in the past While draining, gravel vac the whole area of gravel thurogly, you should get 2-3 passes over each bit, while it is draining. This will remove most of the rubish in it and reduce the chance of any ammonia or nitrite spikes. The lowered water level IME makes it easier for the substrate to be removed also.

After this, add your washed sand (I use play sand from the local Strikes garden centre) to the base, and re-fill with temperature matched water to the 50% line. Wait a few hours for the fish to get over the stress of that, and then fill to full The large waterchange will dilute down any junk stired up in the process also, further reducing any risks to the fish.

I have also gone as far as fully draining and stripping a tank to change substrates. I found this harder work, the fish didn't seam to like it very much, but the tank was clear quicker, and the risk of ammonia spikes are almost completely removed if the filter and heater are moved to the holding tank also.

I would personaly do a large waterchange while substrate changing, less hastle and works well also, though it is more time consuming

HTH
Rabbut

 

[Lazerus]

Hmmm...I would say my gravel is quite sharp. The stones are not rounded off at all in anyway. Very rugged.

I knew dwarf cory's stayed at the bottom mostly, but I also thought Otos did the same as they ate algae off everything including gravel. I'll need to read up more on them clearly.

Anyway, I guess I will have to change it so. I have a bag of playsand in my shed left over from the sand pit so thats no problem. I'll give it billions of washes first.

I think I would like to get some dwarf cories rather than the otos. Although, I'm still deciding. I believe the cories have loads of personality.

Thanks for the advise on what to do.

(Also, my other possibilities for a centre piece fish would be either a Dwarf Cichlid or a Dwarf Gourami....they wouldn't care if it was gravel or sand, sure they wouldn't?

in theory it won't harm the cycle to take out the substrate, however there is the possibility that there's waste trapped in the gravel so when you take the gravel out you stir up a load of muck and get an ammonia spike which you're filter can't handle cos it's still cycling,

If I took the fish out and put them in a bucket, took all the gravel out, and did a complete water change and then moniter it twice daily with my test kit, and change the water if there is an ammonia spike, would that combat that problem?

 

[Lazerus]

I would do a 75% waterchange while changing substrates personally, it's what I have done in the past While draining, gravel vac the whole area of gravel thurogly, you should get 2-3 passes over each bit, while it is draining. This will remove most of the rubish in it and reduce the chance of any ammonia or nitrite spikes. The lowered water level IME makes it easier for the substrate to be removed also.

After this, add your washed sand (I use play sand from the local Strikes garden centre) to the base, and re-fill with temperature matched water to the 50% line. Wait a few hours for the fish to get over the stress of that, and then fill to full The large waterchange will dilute down any junk stired up in the process also, further reducing any risks to the fish.

I have also gone as far as fully draining and stripping a tank to change substrates. I found this harder work, the fish didn't seam to like it very much, but the tank was clear quicker, and the risk of ammonia spikes are almost completely removed if the filter and heater are moved to the holding tank also.

I would personaly do a large waterchange while substrate changing, less hastle and works well also, though it is more time consuming

HTH
Rabbut

Thanks!!! I was typing the same time as yourself!!!

Now the thing is my tank is still very young and my cycle is still quite shaky.....I don't want to be counter productive, but at the same time, I'd like to have it changed over sooner than later and give it a few weeks to settle in and for the cycle to stabilise again etc....

Would you say its safe to do it now? Or should I definately leave it a few weeks?

 

[rabbut]

If the cycle is shaky, I'd avoid doing anything other than a waterchange on the system, as the bacteria in the filter are at their most sensitive during this time, and are more likely to be "knocked out" buy any major changes to the system

Once ammonia, nitrite have been sitting on zero for about a week, I'd then think about it, but not untill

HTH
Rabbut

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Would you say its safe to do it now? Or should I definately leave it a few weeks?

I don't think you'll get a hard and fast answer to that tbh, it's a bit of a judgement call. for me i would play is safe and leave it a few weeks before changing it. But I also think it would be perfectly possible to change it out now without anything going wrong... it's just a bit risky is all.

re the otto's, they will go on the gravel from time to time, but they wouldn't be scurrying along it like the cories do. they tend to flit around the tank they'll rest in one place, have a little graze, then flit off onto somewhere else then have a graze there and so on around the tank.

 

[Lazerus]

Grand....Okay...I think taking one thing at a time is the best thing to do in this instance. I need to keep my Cardinals healthy and safe first and foremost.

I'll wait until I'm confident that this tank is definately cycled....I'm hoping that I will be seeing some success soon! (Its been 7 weeks so I'm hoping I'm nearly close! )

And then I'll look to changing out the gravel then.

The logistics of the changeover is something for me to think about over the next fews....plus I'll have a look and see what kind of sands there are out there....maybe a dark/black colour might be nice to bring out the colours of the fish although maybe the regular sand colour would be better as maybe its closer to nature?

Anyway...Thanks again!!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

you can get a black sand and i think black sand, black background, nice healthy green plants and the vibrant blues and reds of the cardinals is a look that cannot be beaten

 

[Lazerus]

you can get a black sand and i think black sand, black background, nice healthy green plants and the vibrant blues and reds of the cardinals is a look that cannot be beaten

Well, I have the black background…changed it from the blue the other day…it does look way better…

But do you think I should get plants?

I'm scared of 'real' plants. That’s a whole new 'kettle of fish' for me altogether....I wouldn't know where to start!!!

New thread perhaps!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

ha ha, nowt to be scared of mate

hope over to the planted tank forum there's plenty of threads with details of easy to grow plants, don't need to have a lot of different ones, in fact i think it often looks better with just 1/2 species, and just stick a load in

 

[Lazerus]

Ok last question....

If I was to consider putting plants in my tank and remove the plastic/silk ones....would this upset my cycle?
(You know the history of my tank Miss Wiggle)

Do I have enough space in a 10gal...would they take over?

 

[alysonpeaches]

ha ha, nowt to be scared of mate

hope over to the planted tank forum there's plenty of threads with details of easy to grow plants, don't need to have a lot of different ones, in fact i think it often looks better with just 1/2 species, and just stick a load in

Ive been puzzling over this one too. I have pea gravel about 3-4 mm which is rounded, so Ive decided to stick with it for the time being. My corys dont seem to mind it and snuffle along the bottom quite happily. Its a big job to change all the substrate and I dont feel up to it yet. Just about all the HOW TO books suggest you put gravel on the bottom and thats why everyone starts off with it.

I thought the sand might have been harder to clean as I presumed the gravel vac would suck it up.