What Substrate is Suitable for Keeping Plecos?

[Dreamgarden]

Hi guys,
Planning for a new tank, is ADA aquasoil amazonia(low PH of ~6.0-6.5) suitable for keeping/breeding L46 zebra or other pelcos?

Thanks in advance for the your advise.

Regards

[valice]

Bad idea to use ADA soil in a pleco tank from my experience. And it has nothing to do with conditions but everything to do with clean, crystal clear water.

Plecos when becoming territorial, with use their tails to whip their "opponents" and sort of creating a crater in the process. So when they swoosh their tails, they break up the ADA soil and as a result, cause small particles of the soil to stay suspended in the water column.

So, if you don't mind that, you can use it. I kinda regretted using it now.

[celticfish]

@dreamgarden
ADA soil is a bad idea for pleco i reckon.
you're probably better of with the dennerle black diamond quartz.
besides they will last you forever while ADA breaks down over time.

i second what valice says about the tail whipping.
i now remember when i didn't have the caves i witness a lot of tail whipping.

[Quixotic]

I kept Plecos previously using Lapis sand as I kept Corydoras as well. Didn't encounter any problems with that.

If you are concerned about lowering pH as well, considering ADA soil isn't so favourable, you may try using other methods like peat moss.

[benny]

ADA Aquasoil Amazonia is attractive for 2 reasons:

1. Black/dark colored substrate to show the color of the fishes better.

2. pH altering properties in favor of acidic range.

The disadvantages have been discussed in the posts above. As an alternative, you can consider darker colored fine quartz sand, together with some ketapang leaves to lower the pH. Dennerle aquarium gravel is rounded and is safe for bottom dwelling fishes such as corydoras. But I think they are slightly bigger than what the plecos would be comfortable with. Still, I use them in some of my pleco tanks.

Cheers,

[aquarius]

For me i didn't put any gravel at all cos don't want to go through the trouble of siponing the gravel every now and then.

I stick black oyama sticker at the bottom of the tank to bring out the dark colours of the plecos and it seem to work!

[chingkt]

I kept my pleco with ADA soil too. They look healthy and happy.

[valice]

How many pleco you have chingkt? If you have more than 1 and they start fighting, you will understand why we say ADA soil is not good for pleco tank.

[Dreamgarden]

Hmmm maybe I'll just go back to the basic - use lapis sand, cheap and trouble free for pelco.

Thank you all for their precious advises.

[StanChung]

Good answers, I wonder if it's a good idea to use UGF for pleco tanks since they don't really dig if you give them caves?

I have one of those Azoo UG pipes.