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Cory's deserve sand, a nice soft substrate for them to snuffle about on. Mine used to be on eco complete- its sharp and tough- not great for Cory's, and as its completely inert, not great for plants without extra ferts. My Cory's are now on a mixture of black sansibar sand and a unipac ...

I have lots of this in my tank My corydoras pygmaeus are thriving.

Just dose ferts into the water column from day 1

Any mineralised clay/ soil will give off ammonia. Unless stated otherwise.

Yes.

You can set up the tank and use the ammonia to cycle the filter or soak the substrate in a bucket for a week and change the water everyday

When flooded, eco complete releases zero ammonia- it has no nitrogen source- no food for plants. When you set up a tank with flora base, or its rivals, you get a big ammonia spike- more than enough to kill fish- because its loaded with nitrogen.

Eco complete does not have nitrogen, potassium or phosphorus - NPK. The 3 most important nutrients to green plants. Its porous, can hold nutrients and aid root growth , but you'll need to use ferts immediately- unlike flora base, which gives astonishing growth , combined with the same benefits...

Its lava rock. Doesn't have nutrients. I've used it and consider it to be snake oil. Florabase beats it - hands down.

I just got bags of Congo and sansibar sand! Waiting to rescape.

It does I couldn't find this stuff recently online. Thought it had been discontinued- but its right there!

Its the black stuff , if I recall.

No I ended up recycling my old eco complete with a sand top layer

If your tap water is already over 400 ppm. ( been there, done that) then using this compost will have minimum impact on fish suitable for such hard water.

Some But it also makes the soil safe. After all, the fish are the important factor.

Adding soil will increase ammonia to toxic levels. How about you pre- soak the soil in buckets until ammonia is depleted by water changes?

thanks

lee, what is the consistency of the soil? Is it soil soil or rolled baked ?

Yes, just opened the bag and let it drop into the water. It settles out after a day or so. And looks like a muddy riverbank.

One time , at band camp , I used a bag of top soil as substrate, it looked exactly like the bottom of a river, with graded stones that ranged from sand size ,up to about 5 mm in diameter. It looked wonderful but trying to perform maintenance in the tank caused a murky mess. But it really did...

Certainly a fertile substrate is the easy way to go. You can pre treat molar clay/ cat litter with npk is you choose. If not then there a a bunch of soil based Gucci substrates out there. Oliver knott Colombo flora ada Tetra tmc , Etc etc. . Pick one :)

Im using the fine grade florabase. Its a git to plant into, but now everything has rooted incredibly well. Been running for just under two months. Soil is still very hard and looks like it did in the bag.

Boraras micros, some crypts and wood = fab

should be ok

Tropica specialised is ammonium based

Worm casts are great things. Should do well.

You should expect good things from a JI NO3 substrate. Even better if you combine with the tropica stuff. Although I've never seen tropica soil in a shop. Online is probably best. Or look for shrimp soil on ebay- the stuff in the green bag AQUA GRO

The main issue with the low ph -6 , is that of biological filter function would be lost. I guess breeders with such extreme water use water changes to keep water clean, rather than relying on a traditional filter arrangement.

I assumed terrestrial mycorr is not applicable to aquatic environs? Keep us updated on that .

ph is crazy low, I assume you won't bother with fish?

Was just gonna say the same

Bacter- is that some kind of microrrhyzal?

this stuff looks very interesting, and the price. Kaizen Bonsai-Bonsai Mart, Bonsai Trees-Bonsai Tools-Bonsai Pots-Bonsai Gifts-order bonsai supplies online

That's a good idea. I use clear acrylic cut up to size. Bendy but solid enough.

Substrates will lose nutrients, dosing ferts into the water column will lessen this somewhat. Tnc do a really good root tablet that will boost any old substrate.

Those additives are not required. Get the soil you want and shun the rest

The unipac sounds small enough. Give it a go

ideally, pygmy cory need sand /soil. the grain size is pretty small-they should be ok. when you get the fish keep an eye on their barbels, infection is possible with large gravel.

anything over 2 inches will cause problems. fill stockings with pumice or inert gravel , that can be used to build up an area , with your sand on top.

sand is perfect for many swords or cryptocorynes, they root very well into it. as long as it is not too deep you should be fine. nutrients get used up, even in a all singing- all dancing substrate. although some substrates soak up these nutrients and make them available to plant root. sand will...

CUT UP AN ICE CREAM TUB, AND PUSH IT INTO THE SUBSTRATE TO FORM A BARRIER BETWEEN THE SAND AND ADA STUFF.

no bricks or concrete. you could use inert stone or pumice in stockings.

all will be ok. The great thing about this stuff is that it costs almost nothing and also absorbs nutrients and makes them available to your plants.

i have used similar. Good stuff. Releases lots of ammonia .

i purchased a bag of homebase horticultural sand. 5 pounds for a big bag and very nice it is too.

the abrasive action relates to inserting cuttings into the sand, the slight rough edges of the sand abrades the edges of the stem cutting, helping roots to form at that point. still could be a problem for corydora...