Sand Or Gravel

[tankedagain]

I have a 20 gal. high tank with plastic plants, airstone , whisper 20 filter. In the tank are 2 grown lyre tail platium mollies, 2 fry mollies, 2 swordfish, a cory and a pleco.Planning or moving so when we move I would like to get about 3 more corys and change to sand bottom. Is sand harder to keep clean? does it clog the filter, will I still be able to use my airstone.Basically if someone would give me the pro's and con'n it would greatly be appreciated. As always thanks for your input.......tankedagain

 

[Breedon]

I've found sand is much easyer to keep clean,i use an air stone with no probs at all and i use a fluval fx5 the intake is about 3" from the bottom so no sand will get sucked in, plus it looks a lot better imo than gravel.

 

[Madam Macaw]

I have half gravel and half sand and I prefer the sand myself. Though I like the look I have now and won't change it.

I originally had about 70% gravel on one side and 30% sand on the other, but decided to give the cories more sand. The seemed to prefer to pea gravel for the first few days though - could be because I switched stuff around too.

 

[screamingdonkey]

I would like to get about 3 more corys

All corydoras will prefer sand.
Even with smooth, fine, small gravel their barbels will not grow as well as they should when you have a sandy substrate.

Cleaning the poop off sand takes a bit of getting used to; you just have to hold the siphon about half an inch above the sand but you'll soon get used to it.
Kept clean, sand does look better in my opinion.

There are plenty of threads on here about changing from gravel to sand; try searching for one that was written by The Wolf - it's the most user-friendly step by step guide I've seen on the net

 

[nicnak]

my 96l has gravel but im just cycling a 215 l tank at the mo that has sand as i want a load of cories and i think they love sand.... depends what fish you want really