Hi Raymond, any fine sandy substrate will do. Sudo sand works perfectly fine for me for keeping malawians and tangans, but can be a little pricey. Play sand if you can get it is good as well.
For water buffering, you just need to add coral chips to your filter and they will do the job. Works perfectly for me.
However, if you still want something that buffers up your pH and alkalinity, you can use coral sand. If cannot find in freshwater LFS, you can go marine LFS to look for it.
Cheers!
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