Fish people! :) I need help

[MonkeyZero]

They have a set price for the fish, unless they are feeder.
The neons are .99 each, and they suggest 8
On the other hand the cories range from 1.99 to 4.99
the only shrimp they carry is ghost and cherries. The lady said that the shrimp arent doing to well from their most recent delievery. However, all the cories are in good healthy, except one who is isolated in a different tank
The store is really good about their care for fish .

thats why im only going to them

She reccomends cories and neons as well

Thanks!

 

[HHandbasket]

Couple of corys would be good... they stay on the bottom are small, will help eat detritus and excess food that falls to the bottom, and will not produce a lot of their own waste and will help keep the tank in balance. T-bones (raspboras) and neons do well together, too, and are often similarly priced.

I used to have a small tank with neons, T-bones, live plants, and 2 small red wag platys. Was one of the most colorful, lively tanks I had at the time.

 

[MonkeyZero]

Hmm
Not a big fan of raspboras.

Idk why. but they dont please me haha

Oh hey,

I heard that corydoras and neons would prefer sand as a substrate.
Is this true?
If I switch to sand, how do I do this?
And what type of filter will I need?

 

[babyblue]

very rough substrate can injure the corys barbles...barbells, egh the little whisker like feelers next to the mouth. very smooth substrate or sand is perfered. black sand with black construction paper as a back ground makes even plain little neons look amazing. and why the construction paper, I am a mommy, it was there and I am cheap

tear down tank, keep filter innerds wet and warm in a bowl of water. scoop out old substrate. rinse sand very well in large bucket in sink. place in tank. place a clean dinner plate on top of sand and VERY SLOWLY pour in water. this help not mix it up to bad. let settle if you did mix it up and then restart filter.

 

[bagendhens]

sand doesnt work well with undergravel filters but ANY hang on back filter works just fine with sand...you dont even need aquarium sand, many people use playground sand thats been very well washed...

i do have to say BLACK sand is a little more expensive but it looks stunning with any color fish but particularly brightly colored fish, black sand, black background with some nice real or fake plants make neons just POP, they look amazing!

sand tends to be very dusty at first so rinse well before putting it in...
and itll take a little longer to settle, it wont harm any fish while settling after cleaning ect...but your tank will look murky after cleaning for a little bit longer, especially with a finer sand. (i have black cichlid sand in my cichlid tank, it looks a little "dusty" when i give it a stirr to clean the bottom (i dont own a siphon cleaner) but the fish like to play earthmoving and we dont have a problem with cloudyness when there moving the sand around.id say make sure theres an minimum of 1 inche between the bottom of your filter intake and the top of the sand layer, just so your filters not draggging sand particles in...i also like to turn my filter off for about 1/2 hour when i do a big clean, again just so its not sucking sand particles through itself...

otherwise, no special care required.

my friend got his tank changed to sand by actually leaving a thin layer of his established gravel in the bottom, then covering it with the sand substrate, his fish arnt diggers, so the gravel never got removed and you wouldnt know its under there...but you could also remove the gravel once its "seeded" the sand if you wanted to...
another trick ive seen people do when removing their established gravel is putting a good handfull in the HOB filter.

gonna see if i have a pic of my tank with black sand on my comp...

 

[WoodlandWoman]

I'd start running the HOB filter before you pull out the undergravel filter, too. Just to get the biofilter in it seeded ahead of time.

 

[bagendhens]

not great pictures, but you can see how the black makes the coanrges and teracotta just realy pop

 

[patandchickens]

I've had no trouble at all with corys on that coated/painted gravel they sell (you know, it's like it's been enamelled with whatever color, obviously I don't get the bizarro colors just dark brown or black which do set the fish off nicely too), but yes the really sharp natural gravel is not great for them.

I would not necessarily suggest sand, it can be a lot harder to manage to avoid water quality problems (especially if you plan to leave the tank running for more than a year or so)

If you think you might ever want any more plants than java moss or java fern, I'd suggest skipping the undergravel filter as an u/g filter does not do well with a planted tank, for a large variety of reasons.

Pat

 

[MonkeyZero]

I think sand might look great!

I was wondering If i can keep a VERY VERY thin layer of gravel, and then adding in a fairly thck layer of sand
I was thinking itd add some beneficial bacteria to the sand muuch faster
With a new filter of course.

Will that work?

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
If the point of the gravel is to inoculate the sand with microorganisms, then sure, maybe vaguely worthwhile, ALTHOUGH if this is an established tank and you will not scrub it out and will use the same tank furnishings (plastic plants, filter fittings, etc) then THOSE will have a big dose of nutrient-cycling bacteria TOO. (I thought the plan was to just leave the tank set basically the way it is, on account of being already cycled and well-aged...?? If you replace the substrate and the filter, you will ought to let it cycle back in for a month or two and add your fish gradually, as you will have undone most of the tank's maturity)

Be aware that sand is a lot harder to manage than gravel. You can't vacuum it very well so mulm builds up worse than in a gravelled tank, and because the sand is a much more dense substrate there is more tendency to get pockets of anaerobic decomposition under there (producing hydrogen sulfide, etc) which can be a problem especially if you then disturb them while rearranging plants or attempting to vacuum and their contents get released all at once into the water, can be a real water-chemistry challenge for the fish.

Not that you *can't* do it but personally I'd suggest NOT doing it unless it were for some reason unavoidable. And if you do use a sand bottom, then I would suggest coarse (not fine) sand and an undergravel filter, and don't plan on having the tank set up for more than a few years.

JME, good luck, have fun,

Pat