Advice/Suggestions on my rescaping project

aemaki09

Ooh. I have a bunch of cories in the tank, maybe I'll go with pool filter instead.
This descision is so tough!
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BradSD

yeah that could be a problem but it sure is pretty and economical and plants do well in it.

jentralala

I'm not 100% but I think pool filter has also been recorded as being rough. I'd go with Quikcrete play sand, I have it in my QT tank and it's super soft.

fish monger

I only have experience with the Quikrete Play Sand; however, many people use both of the others. My plants are doing better since changing from gravel to sand and all of the fish seem to enjoy it. There appears to be a regional difference in the Quikrete Play Sand. As an example, Byron's has a mix of colors and tones while mine is a very uniform light beach sand color.

aemaki09

Now, with the play sand, I've heard a lot of complaints that its more easily disturbed by bottom dwellers than the pool or black diamond sands are, and my cories are VERY active. I think would rather the sand be a bit rough than my filter get ruined because the sand was constantly being kicked up and sucked in. (Just a fear, don't know how likely that'd ever be)
Anyways, 2 options for now are black diamond and pool filter...just have to decide what look I want to go for; natural, black.
I am putting soil under this so even though I prefer natural, I'm worried that itd look tacky being tan over black. Plus black would make everything pop more, but worried that it will become to dark with black substrate and black background
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Byron

Play Sand is better/safer for corys. I have 3 inches of Quikrete Play Sand in my 5-foot 115g tank, with almost 40 corys now, all wild caught and some larger fellows, and I never have problems. The filter intake should be 5-6 inches above the substrate anyway, so that is not an issue.

Some pool filter sand and some blasting sand and all paver sand is rougher, and not a good idea with corys. Play Sand is almost identical to the sand in Amazonian streams, so you can't get much more authentic unless you went down there with a couple of buckets and brought back some sand.

Just a note on black substrates. I tried this, and didn't like it. Every speck of stuff stuck out. I never see stuff on my sand substrate tanks, nor my fine gravel tank. I have the "mix" in all of these now, and Quikrete Play Sand is ideal for this.

Byron.

aemaki09

Thanks for the input.
This is turning out to be a very tough decision !
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aussieJJDude

OFr me I would go for play sand
But can't wait to see it finished :D