Khuli Loaches and Flourite???

[Fishstix3000]

I have a regular run of the mill black gravel tank. I want to get a herd of khuli loaches. I want to switch to a better substrate for the khulis, so I checked out my LFS and they only had black flourite, no black sand. It looks awfully sharp for the khulis. I checked out old threads and couldn't find a clear answer.

Will khulis be happy in flourite? Will they be injured? Does anyone have experience with khulis in flourite?

Would they be better in the gravel I already have?

Is sand a better substrate all around than flourite?

I have some really easy plants. They don't necessarily need flourite to do well.

I also have cory cats and a pleco on the bottom. Guppies and Platies up top. And a few mystery/apple snails.

Thanks for any input!!

[H3D]

I use eco complete in my kuhli loach tank. :)

[fishorama]

Pool filter sand for me & my kuhlis. What plants do you think 'need' flourite?

[Fishstix3000]

Uh, I don't know what plants "need" flourite. I just know that it self proclaims to be great for planted tanks.

Is Eco Complete similar in texture to flourite?

[H3D]

Is Eco Complete similar in texture to flourite?

No. It is more like a gravel sand mix.

[Fishstix3000]

So, does flourite seem like a bad idea for kuhlis?

[fishorama]

My kuhlis don't really dig in pool sand so they may be ok but flourite seems rough textured. Pool sand is less expensive than flourite too.

I have other loaches on Eco complete without problem but have never tried Flourite. I have some on Flourite Black Sand, other than being hard to clean the loaches seem ok.

[Fishstix3000]

Flourite is hard to clean? They left that out at the fish store. They showed me a tank they had set up with it and said it was the best stuff they have and how awesome it is.

[Bubbles2112]

I think it is the Flourite Black Sand is hard to clean. I have some in one of my tanks and you can't do water changes the way one would normally perform them. Usually I twist the siphon part of the tubing straight into the substrate to suck out any accumulated waste. But you can't do that with sand--it gets sucked up into the siphon cuz its so light.

[Kuhlifan]

The smoother the substrate the better. Even if they don't dig, they still scrounge around for food, which can be hard on their little whiskers.

I used pool filter sand in my aquarium. My plants are growing like crazy. If you want black sand though, you'll probably have to do some searching or order online, because I doubt you'll find black pool filter sand anywhere.

[NickD]

I have black Flourite in my tank with black kuhlis and haven't had a problem. The kuhlis have been there for a few months now and they're all doing fine.

Cleaning: My tank is heavily planted so I never actually siphon the Flourite.

[kuhliloach]

I would reccomend a very fine gravel, heavy enough for the plants and safe enough for kuhli's.

[PsyKick]

I ordered some fluorite black sand from Docs foster and smith for my kuhlis, seems to be working out great for them!

Only bad thing is the cleaning, which some others here have mentioned. Cant vac the sand directly, but I hold my vac an inch above the sand and swirl it, usually that kicks up the debris and gunk into the vac....