Early planning stages of 55 or 75 gallon tank

Unrulyevil

Sand???

musho3210

if you have something to say go ahead and say it, i can take critisism :)

magic_marty

the tahitian moon sand is nice looking but expensive to.

fish_4_all

There is nothing wrong with Eco Complete and Cories, I know a couple people that even breed them with Eco in their tanks and they look fabulous. The barbles of the cories are effected by Nitrates more than anything else and other water quality issues. I have them in a tank with regular LFS gravel and their barbles are longer than I thought they could get.

As for Sand, Malaysian Trumpet Snails are the best bet to keep it stirred up and prevent dead pocket but sand alone is not recommended for plants. The sand will compress around the plant roots and unless you are willing to stir the entire tank the roots can suffocate in the sand. If I could afford to get Eco I would use nothing else in all of my planted tank and possibly my non planted ones also.

Lonewolfblue

Eco and Cories is absolutely no problem. I have cories in my planted tanks with Eco, and they are doing just fine.

Also to add, from reading the original post, a single 2L bottle DIY CO2 will not be enough for a 55G or 75G. You would need at least 4 for good CO2 levels, or you might end up battling BBA.

And yes, if you don't stir sand, it will compact and suffocate the plants roots. But from what I heard, if you have crypts, they do fine is sandy or muddy substrates, where other plants would not survive.

Unrulyevil

Well.. usually ... sand is not the best thing to use in the tank as sand is not big enough to let the gases out from all that bacteria in it. Which means that time to time you'll have to do something with it (sand) to avoid rotting and bacterial dis balance in it.

Gravel is way better, since it allows for normal gas exchange and cultural and bacterial grow.

Ohh btw you said that you will use CO2? Than I think you want a planted tank? right? why would you use CO2 in the regular tank?

So .. if you want planted tank DO NOT use sand! Use gravel and add some vulcanite in to the gravel for better grow.

musho3210

ok, and yes it will be a planted tank, like what my original post said

Lonewolfblue

I have 1 tank with all Volcanit and it really looks good. Eco is better, but for looks, I like the look of Volcanit better. And it's a really good choice for a planted substrate.

musho3210

hmm i dont mind the looks, i am just more worried about the cories

Lonewolfblue

No problems at all with the cories. I wouldn't worry about it. I have a lot of cories, in both Eco and regular aquarium gravel, and no problems.