I have a 23 gallon L tank that has 2/3 gravel, 1/3 Caribsea Moonlight sand. I have a new batch of Black Sail corys in a 10G QT with pool filter sand on the bottom.
I plan to enlarge the sanded portion of the display tank for when I add the corys, but I now have concerns about both sands.
The PFS, Lighthouse brand from US Silica, is quite coarse; my concern is that is that it might be jagged enough to harm the corys' barbels. Conversely, I'm concerned that the Carisea sand is too fine, and might compact enough to create anoxic conditions (it's so fine, it almost feels more like flour than sand between my fingers).
I'd just bought another bag of it for the display tank, and I'm thinking of returning it and buying a coarser sand to mix in with the existing stuff and spread it out... or would the Caribsea fill in the gaps in coarser sand, making it anoxic as well? And should I be replacing the PFS? I know that others here use PFS, but (a) I didn't know if that was with corys and their barbel issues, and (b) if the sand I bought is coarser than average.
Attached are the two sands with a penny for size reference, PFS at right.
I plan to enlarge the sanded portion of the display tank for when I add the corys, but I now have concerns about both sands.
The PFS, Lighthouse brand from US Silica, is quite coarse; my concern is that is that it might be jagged enough to harm the corys' barbels. Conversely, I'm concerned that the Carisea sand is too fine, and might compact enough to create anoxic conditions (it's so fine, it almost feels more like flour than sand between my fingers).
I'd just bought another bag of it for the display tank, and I'm thinking of returning it and buying a coarser sand to mix in with the existing stuff and spread it out... or would the Caribsea fill in the gaps in coarser sand, making it anoxic as well? And should I be replacing the PFS? I know that others here use PFS, but (a) I didn't know if that was with corys and their barbel issues, and (b) if the sand I bought is coarser than average.
Attached are the two sands with a penny for size reference, PFS at right.
