# Substrate for Plants AND Corydoras



## el_heb (Sep 12, 2009)

Hi all

Second thread in here
Does anyone recomend a substrate that's good for growing plants and for keeping corys? Because i'm having a hard time with substrates, right now i have the Azoo Plant Grower Bed, which is similar to Red Sea's Flora Base and eco-complete, but it's messy, very light, and my corys barbels are really short since using that substrate. In the past i used silica gravel, but was worse for my corys, all of them developed something like a huge pimple on their noses. I would prefer sand as the sole substrate, something that's not very messy, but i can't find any good information about it. 
Fluorite i've read it's good but i fear it's gonna have the same effect on my corys barbels.

What do you recomend?
Thanks


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## gheitman (Oct 28, 2007)

I prefer Eco-Complete myself but you could also try Flourite Black Sand (I haven't tried it yet).


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## SearunSimpson (Jun 5, 2007)

I haven't tried the Flourite black sand, but I have noticed that Flourite Black and Dark are still a little too rough for cories. Maybe try ADA.


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## el_heb (Sep 12, 2009)

I think eco-complete is about the same as azoo plant grower bed. What i don't like about it is that if i stir just a little bit the substrate a cloud of dust and debris rises and takes a while to settle... on the plants! And if i stir the plants the debris rises again and settles again on the plants, very annoying and frustrating.
I've read this article http://www.plantedtank.net/articles/Sand-Substrate/20/ and thought of using sand/flourite, but instead of layering i thought of mixing the sand with the flourite, so as not exposing too much the flourite and preventing the sand from compacting around the plant roots.


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## SearunSimpson (Jun 5, 2007)

Orlando at GLA has the new line of Azoo in and he said its nothing like the old stuff. This new stuff is different all together, all the way to coming from a new factory, and he says this stuff does NOT cloud up at all like florabase.


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## ron521 (May 12, 2008)

EcoComplete here as well, cories seem to have no problem at all, and I can live with the settling issue, as water current seems to remove anything from plants shortly.


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## eyebeatbadgers (Aug 6, 2007)

Plain sand.

/thread


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## rich815 (May 21, 2008)

Regular flourite, SMS (aka Turface) and/or sand. That what I've used successfully with plants and cories.


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## el_heb (Sep 12, 2009)

Thanks for the replies

I'll look at all the available substrates from my LFS and see what they have that's not the azoo substrate, maybe i'll give it a shot with the flourite

Thanks


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## blackandyellow (Jul 1, 2009)

I have regular fluorite and my corys are healthy and happy. Just make sure to clean it thoroughly because it does not come prewashed as the bag says. Plants are also thriving. 

The problem with the azoo bed is that you need to tear down the whole aquarium and substitute it on a yearly basis, which is easy if the tank is small but a major chore if the tank is large


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## thrak76 (Aug 3, 2009)

I use a layered bed of flourite and black sand. The corys have been fine with it. Over time a lot of the flourite ends up on top, and I've seen no ill effects on their barbs.


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## candice&jeff (Jun 17, 2009)

I'm using the florite black sand and my cories LOVE it, so do I! They get half their little bodies buried in it when their rutting around lol. My plants seem to like it to.

This sand isn't messy either, it settles very well.


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