Easy cleaning substrate

[Sunpoe]

What is the easiest substrate to clean? I am really getting tired of cleaning gravel, it just never seems to get clean. I know bare bottum is easy but it just looks so unnatural. Sand looks natural but I hear it destroys filters and is just as hard to clean. Any ideas?

 

[blakeoe]

I used to have sand and it always looked clean. It did do allot of damage to my powerfilters though but when i get my wet dry im going to switch back to it and make sure i get a larger grain sand.

 

[fishnutham]

i went back to gravel from sand because of the difficulty cleaning it i bought hagen expoxy coated gravel its more money but my python tube slides right thru it like a hot knife thru butter

 

[Sunpoe]

i went back to gravel from sand because of the difficulty cleaning it i bought hagen expoxy coated gravel its more money but my python tube slides right thru it like a hot knife thru butter

Do you find that the epoxy graval becomes clean after a water change?

 

[fishnutham]

i'm not sure what you mean clean as in stained or the detris thats under it .
i have no problems with either hasnt stained yet and the gravel is full of decaying wood from about 40lbs of bog wood it comes right up when i vacuum it when i had the sand it hardly removed any sent my ph levels dangeroulsy low now my tanks stable at 6.9ph so it does clean up better

 

[JD_MAN]

What color of gravel are you using??

I have been using the pea gravel from Lowe's and it is dark enough that you can never see that it is that dirty and it looks natural.

 

[Sunpoe]

i'm not sure what you mean clean as in stained or the detris thats under it .
i have no problems with either hasnt stained yet and the gravel is full of decaying wood from about 40lbs of bog wood it comes right up when i vacuum it when i had the sand it hardly removed any sent my ph levels dangeroulsy low now my tanks stable at 6.9ph so it does clean up better

Yea I ment the detritus, thanks for the help.