My substrate is smaller black gravel. The guy here in town says it will be ok with corys. I have flakes, pellets, algea wafers and deied bloodworms. I also planned on cucumbers/green beans for the pleco, snail and corys.Your stock choice sounds interesting and should make for a lively and fun to watch tank. Some questions though.
I have forgotten what substrate you have in the tank? Larger chunky, sharp stuff isn't the best for corys. They like to sift and root through sand or much smaller grained substrates.
Just throwing some thoughts out there. In my mind, with your stock choice you'll have 4 different feeding styles between the pleco, corys, gourami and tetras in terms of the speed they're able to get at and eat food. All the fish will be fine, but the corys and pleco each have their own feeding needs. A new tank also won't have bio film build up for the pleco to skim on.
I used to feed my corys quality sinking pellet foods
For my BN plecos, I buy those mini pickle sized cucumbers. I peel them and shove a SS fork or big SS screw into them so they'll sink to the bottom. For me with multiple BNs, nothing but the fork or screw remains after a day or two. They come flying right out and squabble over who's gettin' on the pickle first... That didn't sound right.
food is all Xtreme aquatic brand except blood worms are Hikari. Bought them from Aquarium Coop online.No offence to your guy in town, but my experience is they are generally not accurate on fish keeping advice. They're there to sell you stuff. Gravel is not the best substrate for corys. The more versed cory keepers can give you the details as to why.
In terms of your foods, all that matters is the ingredient list. If the first 3-4 listed ingredients aren't whole protein and plant products, it's generally a very low quality food. Lots of fish foods out there will list grains and fillers in the first 3 ingredients. It's junk.
That film you speak of are generally proteins, oils and tiny solids that coagulate and float to the surface due to the tiny air and CO2 bubbles introduced into the water when you do water changes.