# Black substrate, relatively fine, good with Corys..



## Squid (16 Feb 2016)

Hi

Title says most of it really.. I'm looking for a nice black substrate for a low tech easy manage planted tank, that will also be ok for Corys if I decide to add them.  Fine, but not too fine that it gets sucked up in my phython syphon!

Reading George's article of a while ago, would *Caribsea Eco-Complete s*till be a good bet?

Cheers,
Mike


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## alto (16 Feb 2016)

Carib Sea Eco-Complete is fine with Corys

Last EC I purchased contained a good amount of rather gilttery fines - fortunately these sink away beneath the upper layer (fairly quickly)  

I'd recommend using a nutrient rich layer beneath the EC (I'm a fan of Tropica Growth Substrate)
Depending on your water parameters & tank conditions, you may want to supplement with water column fertilizers

I'm running a low tech tank
Tank: ADA 45P Mist
Substrate: Tropica Growth Substrate +Tropica  Aquarium Soil (powder)
Lighting: daylight  (east facing window)
CO2: none
Filter: Sicce Micron 
Flora: C beckettii Petchii  C wendtii Tropica  E Aquartica  R rotundifolia  L mauritiana (slow growth, trimmed emerse leafs), Salvinia natans
Fauna: assorted shrimps + babies, C hastatus, horned nerite snail

I have other tanks with Tropica Soil (powder), once it hydrates, I can pull it up into the Python "gravel cleaning tube" & then easily release it back into the tank - rather than going straight towards the drain, the soil particles tumble around in the wide tube allowing fine debris to be selectively removed (I only do this when rescaping areas of the tank)  

eco complete - there are other threads as well, just not sure how best to engage the Search Engine as "Eco" is too short, "complete" gets you any use of the word "complete"  ...


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## darren636 (16 Feb 2016)

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 , whose name escapes me.
The black sansibar is very light and easily syphoned though.  I have plenty left over in the bag for replacing any lossed from my syphon.


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## jagillham (16 Feb 2016)

JBL Sansibar Black is fine, but more slate grey than black.


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## alto (16 Feb 2016)

darren636 said:


> Cory's deserve sand


mine obviously failed to read the book on this 

I've never observed barbel erosion in Cory's kept on EC, though they never dove as deep in EC - or sand - as they do in Tropica Soil (powder)


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## alto (16 Feb 2016)

If your shop stocks Carib Sea, I rather like the new  "River of Doubt"  substrate


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## zozo (17 Feb 2016)

Recently bought a bag of HS-Aqua black gravel.. 
http://www.hsaqua.eu/en/substrate-materials
Very nice size, still has some weight to it, stays down and holds the smaller plants pretty good. My small crypts seem to love it. And it came relatively cheap less then €10 for 9 liter bag. Looks i bit shiny when in dry form, but when in the tank this isn't distracting, it's a mixture of lava grit and silica grit, the lava grit has a dull collor the silica a shiny one.


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## Swordplay (23 Feb 2016)

A fine sand would be your best bet. If it has to be black I too would go for JBL Sansibar or for the natural look plain silver sand (which looks great with wood)
In terms of syphoning I just use a normal piece of filter pipe and hover a few centimetres above the substrate to remove any debris and find this works well.
Having tried growing very small plants with Corys I would say don't bother unless you protect the bases with something as they do seem to love to dig them up on a regular basis.
Having said that I would find it hard to not have at least one tank with Corys in so I would say the sacrifice is worth it.


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