gravel vs sand for cories and bn pleco

I'll start this out being honest - I don't like sand. I just really, really don't care for it. I've tried it in a couple tanks, and I've used both PFS and the stuff they sell specifically for aquariums. I like the look of gravel a lot better. (By gravel I'm referring to the natural pebble type gravels rather than the painted aquarium gravels)

That being said, I'm in the early stages of planning a 40 gallon breeder tank and I'd really like to include a small school of cories and a BN pleco or a rubberlip pleco. Everything I've read says they ought to have sand, and I'll set it up that way if I have to, but is there any way I can use smooth pebbles instead? I found a substrate of larger (about thumbnail sized) smooth pebbles that I really love the look of.

If I decided to use live plants in the tank, which I have never really played around with before, would that chance what I would need to do, substrate-wise?

Thanks ahead for any feedback - I usually don't keep bottom feeders so I just dump whatever I like in my tanks.

 

Corys are best kept on sand, their natural way of feeding is to take in mouthfuls & sift it through their gills, they can't do that on gravel.
If you really wanted gravel make sure it's small grain & rounded not sharp as sharp gravel can damage their barbels.
You could do a sand area for the corys with some sort of divider to stop the two substrates getting mixed together

 

Over ther years I heve kept and bred several types of Corys. I have never used sand. There never has been an issue with their health or whiskers. I used smaller smooth gravel. That being said I like the above idea of having a sand pool for the Corys. I have one of those (20 lbs) in the 46 gal bow front for the coolie loaches to play in

 

BN plecos are fine with either, but cories need either smooth gravel or sand.

 

Just know that with BN Plecos and plants, they will knock them out of the sand all the time and love to dig in sand as well which will require you to re-landscape the sand constantly unless you enjoy the large banks it will make.

 

I had a cory to lose barbs before I switched to sand.

 

I use Seachum Flourite gravel on my two tanks with Cories and never have had a problem.