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Just wondering is coral sand okay for a zebra set up as the tank I will be using to house them already has it in it, if not what is the best substrate ? Thanks

Not quite sure what you mean by coral sand. Is it crushed coral? If so it would not be a good choice. Coral will raise your pH and hardness. Many folks go bare bottom and many others use more "traditional" kinds of sand.

Take it your talking about the likes of play sand ?

Well everybody has their own preference for sand. The main thing to realize about it is that, similar to gravel, it comes in different grain sizes. The finer the grain, the easier it is to roil it up and move it around. When one has high current in a pleco tank, keeping sand in place when its a small grain size can be difficult.

The problem is in trying to locate a cheap sand alternative, such as pool filter sand etc. that will work. I discovered an expensive sand that I love but have not been able to discover a cheap alternative. I am partial to Carib Sea Torpedo Beach sand. I like it because It can by vacuumed which is a problem the smaller the grain size as it tends to be lighter than pleco poop.

I should not that for the past 6+ years I have kept most of my breeder plecos in bare bottom tanks. I only began toying with sand last summer in relation to an Altum angel tank. I so liked the sand that its still in the tank which is now serving as a growout tank for L450s. I recently set up a tank for some new Hypans and I did that tank with the sand as well.

To get a feel for what I am talking about and grain size take a look here http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... atid=21412
Click on More Information tab.

Hi Kelly, do you know what your Ph and tds is on your water in Lovely ireland ,if it like ours here its very soft already
Ph 6 ish - Tds Low 30 reason being for myself to bred these fish i place oyster shells in tank to slowly harden water a touch so there is a change enough for them to put on spawn.(But thats slightly off subject for now)

As two tank says coral does alter ph so maybe not the best to use on tank bottom i use a white sand 2 reasons why i use that is im blind in one eye so it helps me see things better the other it looks ok aswel with all the slate ive got about.

I use modified Fx5,s in my large tanks 50 gallons-ish (48x18x18) along with aquaball large size and a wave maker to break surface tension ,the sand tends to kick up but what happens is that it settles behind all my slate cover and creates food holding areas if you watch how the current works you can place caves and hiding decor close as poss to these areas and the zebs then pickup on this close food source and take up territories so you could split a tank up into many areas for them to hold there own wee bit of turf so to speak without them coming to blows.

And as far as stopping the sand going down the filter inlet just use a pair of new tights (Fine type) soak for a day or 2 in water dry and then place one of the toe end of them over the inlet cage end and that helps stops it damaging your external filter.( Just mind and clean rinse tights out once a week in tank water in a bucket as food does get trapped on them)
As far as the Sand goes i use Unipac about £25 for 25kg get it on ebay if you cant get else where, this does many tanks as i only use enough to cover the bottom hlf inch to inch at most i also use Mts aswel they help to clean hard to get to parts etc

Hope this makes sense to you

Thanks for the replies, my ph from the tap is round 7 I keep mostly Malawi's due to this. Do keep other plecos with no problem, I managed to get the JBL Sanaibar sand (before I seen the posts)I'll give it a go and see how it goes. Going to be setting another 6 tanks in the fishroom for plecos so I can try the other sands in them as well. Just wanting to make sure I get it right with these guys before I get them delivered, have 5 ordered at the minute and looking for different bloodlines to add to that group.

It's my the ph of the tap water, it's what it does after a day or two in the aquarium. I have coral sand mixed with fine gravel in my Hypancistrus tanks to stop ph going below 6. Ratio of about 20% coral to the inert substrate.

In my experience, sand isn't great in such tanks as it gets moved around too much by the power filtration.

Jools




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Not pretty sure about coral sands though, you have to make research about that before putting it up. You need to be sure what's best for your pet though. If you'll need further tips about marine pets then visit here pet shop lincoln.

I've removed the Coral sand from the tanks just to be sure and replaced it with JBL Sanisbar sand