# Gravel and sand?



## Spidergrrrl (Oct 11, 2006)

I bought some dwarf cories earlier this week and am thinking of putting some sand in my tank for them to dig around in. One corner of my tank doesn't have any plants in it, so it would be easy to kind of slide the gravel away, and replace it with sand. 

But in thinking aesthetically, I'm wondering if sand would look better covering the entire bottom, instead of just a corner. If I decide to do that, can I just put a layer of sand over my gravel? Or should I replace the gravel with sand?

Any thoughts/ideas are appreciated - thanks!


----------



## Wheeler (Feb 8, 2004)

If you put the sand over your gravel, it will just sift down underneath. Smaller grains naturally settle to the bottom. 

Aesthetics are another topic. Plain sand areas are a fad at the moment and look cool.... But they need to look natural. A small patch of sand in the corner may or may not look good; I haven't seen your tank. Probably not, though, I suspect it will look like exactly what it is: an after thought.

Cories and planted tanks are a challenge... Perhaps it's time to tear everything down and start from scratch?


----------



## jbot (Feb 3, 2006)

Personally, I've never had any problems keeping cories in my tanks. 

If you have the time and energy, I would consider tearing the tank down and replacing the gravel with one of the fine grained substrates (i.e., eco-complete, aqua soil).... But that's just me 

About the sand, you can't place it over the gravel as Wheeler pointed out. You probably don't need it at all - your cories will be fine with gravel substrate.


----------



## tkos (Oct 30, 2006)

I have seen people in the past build little sand boxes for cories. That keeps the sand separate fromt he gravel and is easy to remove if you don't like it later on. Fill a ceramic dish or something that is aquarium safe.

Persoanlly I have 8 cories, 3 of which started in the tank 4 years ago, the others are the babies of those. I have allways used pea stone gravel and it is fine. Adding an area of a plant like java moss or something is good, they do love to route through that.


----------



## Spidergrrrl (Oct 11, 2006)

Thanks for the replies/input, everyone. 

Wheeler, you're right of course - it will probably look like an afterthought, since it is that. I hadn't specifically been planning on dwarf cories - I got lucky because All About Fish had them in stock. And I kind of suspected the sand would just sift down eventually, but good to have that confirmation.

jbot and tkos, good to know that regular gravel should be fine for them. I may put a small dish of sand in there eventually but for now they seem to be happy. They're certainly digging around enough.  Best thing -would- probably be to start over, but meh - I only just finished setting up the tank last week, so...not right now. 

I do have an abandoned 5 gallon hex that I may set up specifically for them in the future. It would be my first experience/experiment with sand. But for now, I will just enjoy.


----------

