Switched from gravel to sand for my corydoras, and still worried about their barbels

I bought "play sand" from the hardware store that is supposed to be for sandboxes as that seemed to be what was recommended online. In the background you can see a cup of the gravel that I used to have. The cories barbels look a bit shorter and usually look pink, so I am thinking that this sand is still not fine enough.
I do water changes once a week. and use a gravel vac. Was only doing 10-20% changes, because the nitrate was only usually 7-10, but now have started doing 50% because I was worried about the barbels. No ammonia or nitrite, and ph is 7.6. Hardness is 9.
I feed them a variety: sinking bug bites, tropical flakes, and omega one pellets. I just make sure some gets to the bottom for them.
What should I get for them? Should I just do a bare bottom tank? (at least til their barbels dont look pink anymore)
Do they need meds? Their barbels only look pink and irritated, not infected.
side note: I bought these as Julii, but I think these are the false julii. Anyone agree? My other one has more of a lateral stripe, whereas this one has one that is broken up a bit.

This doesn't look like play sand. Do you have a link to the product or a photo of the packaging?
I'm quite sure the second photo is trilineatus corydoras.

That doesn’t look like playsand to me either. These are pictures of some of my corys on their playsand, £5 from Argos

I don't have play sand in a tank but in kid's sand pit. The sand is very very fine and uniform in grain. Your sand looks too gravely still.

Agreed, looks off for play sand.

Both cories are trilineatus (aka false julii)
Don't go barebottomed. Cories need substrate, there is beneficial bacteria in the substrate that also keeps barbels healthy, theyre still known to get barbel loss in bare bottomed tanks too.

Id switch that sand out for a true play sand.

This is the packaging. I saw there is some pool filter sand available. In the reviews many people have used it for aquariums. I want something thats not too light coloured though.
All the finer sand kinda sinks to the bottom and the pieces that are a bit bigger sit on top. I might be able to sift it maybe. Otherwise I just have a 25kg bag of sand I dont know what to do with...

@PheonixKingZ have you used Quikrete play sand?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JJ5GXSK/?tag=ff0d01-20

This is the one my local store sells. Seen great reviews, but its off white/peach colour. Can anyone recommend one that is a darker colour? I am not sure the light colour will show off fish colours as well.

AilyNC said:

@PheonixKingZ have you used Quikrete play sand?

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Yes. This is Quikrete play sand.

Somethingsfishy001 said:

Yes. This is Quikrete play sand.

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Oh I was tagging @PheonixKingZ to see if his texture is the same

AilyNC said:

Oh I was tagging @PheonixKingZ to see if his texture is the same

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oh oops.

Looks to be a coarser one. Its an approved brand, @Byron recommends it a lot, but not sure if it is normally that coarse. He may know more on that.

The barbels may be a little pink as the substrate was just changed so it may take a little for beneficial bacteria in the substrate to establish well. Keep an eye on this, it may improve over time, but may turn into full blown infection. Id do heavy water changes to prevent this.

Id take a chopstick and stir the sand a little every week as well. Both to keep the finer grains at the surface as it settled and to prevent anaerobic pockets from forming.

Actually you can use gravel if you’re worrying about sand, just make sure the gravel are not sharp.

Somethingsfishy001 said:

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https://www.homedepot.ca/product/quikrete-premium-play-sand-25kg/1000166231

This is the packaging. I saw there is some pool filter sand available. In the reviews many people have used it for aquariums. I want something thats not too light coloured though.
All the finer sand kinda sinks to the bottom and the pieces that are a bit bigger sit on top. I might be able to sift it maybe. Otherwise I just have a 25kg bag of sand I dont know what to do with...

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Weird I just switched from gravel to that same brand, and mine is super fine with a few scattered pebbles. Your sand is also a lot darker than mine, it could be you just got a bad batch.

AilyNC said:

@PheonixKingZ have you used Quikrete play sand?

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Yes I do, the size of the grain of sand is suitable for Corydoras. (I don’t think the OP’s is suitable, seems a bit big to me. It’s hard to judge through a photo though...)

Naughts said:

This doesn't look like play sand. Do you have a link to the product or a photo of the packaging?
I'm quite sure the second photo is trilineatus corydoras.

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That is play sand. Some that they have made before, are a courser grain than what we are used to seeing.

I also recognize the bag color/variation - that is the stuff I used to use, until they got rid of it. Now, I get the stuff in the brown bag.