Multies And Coral Sand

[Larissa]

Hi all,

I'm in the process of setting up a small multie species tank.
I'm just double checking that multies will be fine with marine coral sand. It is pretty fine grained - beetween 1mm-3mm. I know they love to dig so I want to get suitable substrate for them. Let me know if you think the coral sand is ok or if there are any problems with it.

Thanks,
Larissa

Edit: and does anyone have biotope-ish plant recomendations.

 

[emmsy]

Coral sand has PH buffering properties, so ideal in a Malawi setup, but yes, coral sand should be okay to use IMHO. Aragonite sand, maybe not so much

Emma

 

[stang1]

Coral sand will be fine as it will buffer the Ph but you could use normal sand and use Tufa or Ocean rock to help raise the PH. I had normal sand with mine and they were fine, even had them breeding after 4 weeks!
You might be best using plants like Anubias or Java Fern which don't need substrate to grow and can be attached to the rock. Multies will pretty much make the tank their own by moving the sand around so it is to their liking. This may cause any plants to become uprooted as I found out!
All you really need is plenty of empty shells and some rock to fill the tank out a bit and help the PH.

 

[Larissa]

Coral sand will be fine as it will buffer the Ph but you could use normal sand and use Tufa or Ocean rock to help raise the PH. I had normal sand with mine and they were fine, even had them breeding after 4 weeks!
You might be best using plants like Anubias or Java Fern which don't need substrate to grow and can be attached to the rock. Multies will pretty much make the tank their own by moving the sand around so it is to their liking. This may cause any plants to become uprooted as I found out!
All you really need is plenty of empty shells and some rock to fill the tank out a bit and help the PH.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking in terms of plants too. I don't want to have to be constantly re-planting after the multies decide they want to re-decorate! The shells are taken care of already - I have about 30 neothauma shells and a couple of small ocean rocks as well. All that is left is the substrate - and a good filter...

 

[stang1]

If I remember rightly, I used something like play sand for mine.
My tank was a 48G with a Fluval 4 filter, worked great and never had any problems apart from constant breeding!