Substrate questions

[earhtmother]

Hoping to eventually move the Angels & Cories from the 70g to the 100g which would be the perfect time to change their substrate.Silk plants not live as I just don't have the time or patience, even though I love the jungle look. Couple of low horizontal pieces of DW & maybe a Spiderwood tree scrounged from another tank. I would love to use sand for the cories to dig in but I don't like not being able to clean it with my python the way I do my gravel. Are there any reasonably priced alternatives?

 

[agrasyuk]

Fine substrate that cories like to dig will not be as vacumable as the coarse substrate that cories don't like to dig.
Vacumable or diggable - you can only have one.

Cories will get over coarse substrate if it is round enough to not damage the bristles

 

[earhtmother]

Yeah I have use a rounded pebble gravel in their current tank which they forage over constantly

 

[Barliman]

A 1-2mm gravel should be ideal: larger than sand, so easy to clean, but small enough that it's easy on the corys.

 

[agrasyuk]

if you have sand your cories can do this:
https://youtu.be/AoqEdwtZqRw?t=17s

 

[Fresh2o]

Sorry, was trying to fix the link but if you https://youtu.be/AoqEdwtZqRw?t=17s click on it then it will play.
That’s what I want to see my Pygmy corys doing once they get out of QT.

 

[earhtmother]

I would love this but the idea of a substrate I can't clean just doesn't work for me. Qith the pebbles they have righr now they do forage alot just can't get their snouts as deep

 

[Fresh2o]

I would love this but the idea of a substrate I can't clean just doesn't work for me. Qith the pebbles they have righr now they do forage alot just can't get their snouts as deep

I did not clean my EcoComplete for over 5 years. I had a gravel vac but stepped on it and never replaced it. But it was a planted tank with a low bioload.
Now I have PFS. The hover thing won’t work for me because of the leaf litter I have scattered on the substrate. I have some MTS so i hope they keep the sand turned. Poop is really visible on light colored sand.

 

[earhtmother]

Yeah and plecos are poop monsters ?

 

[Old Jedi]

With a fine sand, 1-1.5" deep, you won't have to plunge the python into it the way you do with larger sand/gravels. Detritus doesn't get down into it, it just lays on top. Holding the python about 1/2" above the sand, and kind of swishing in back and forth over the detritus will float it up off of the sand so you can suck it right out of the water with the python.
Alternatively, if you remove the larger python tube and just use the open end of the hose, you can move that around above the sand and suck stuff right off the top. You might get the occasional piece of sand, but you will get the feel of it.