Skyrmir
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Okies, I just realized something. Cories + shrimp pellets + gravel substrate. Just how are the corries supposed to lift small boulders to get to the choice bits of shrimp pellet that they invariably spray all over the place?
And seeing as the gravel is avoided during water changes...there's probably a TON of decaying shrimp pellet in that gravel. Just a note, also the good bacteria attach themselves to the gravel. You'd have to scrub pretty good to actually remove it, so vacuuming shouldn't hurt at all. And if my suspicion is correct, there's a bunch of gunk down in that gravel feeding the green algea instead of the cories.
Just my 2 cents from watching my own cories turn shrimp pellets into huge swathes of shrimp pellet bits, then vacuuming them up. I use sand myself so the cories actually dig about 1/4 of an inch into the sand to suck up the bits they scatter.
And seeing as the gravel is avoided during water changes...there's probably a TON of decaying shrimp pellet in that gravel. Just a note, also the good bacteria attach themselves to the gravel. You'd have to scrub pretty good to actually remove it, so vacuuming shouldn't hurt at all. And if my suspicion is correct, there's a bunch of gunk down in that gravel feeding the green algea instead of the cories.
Just my 2 cents from watching my own cories turn shrimp pellets into huge swathes of shrimp pellet bits, then vacuuming them up. I use sand myself so the cories actually dig about 1/4 of an inch into the sand to suck up the bits they scatter.