Quick sand question

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Iff you're into color sand mixes, another alternative is Sandtastik, a Canadian company. They have a website with 30+ colors of sand. There are two grades of sand...the "classic" which is fine, and "floral" which is very coarse.

You would want the floral sand. It's heavy and has wide space between the grains. Because of this you won't need as much. My 6ft 225 only needed 80 lbs for about a 1+" layer. I had plenty leftover for other tanks. I don't even wash the stuff, just dump it in and stir. It's got texture like sugar crystals. Have it in all my tanks and no problem with the hobs at all.
 
FINWIN said:
Iff you're into color sand mixes, another alternative is Sandtastik, a Canadian company. They have a website with 30+ colors of sand. There are two grades of sand...the "classic" which is fine, and "floral" which is very coarse.

You would want the floral sand. It's heavy and has wide space between the grains. Because of this you won't need as much. My 6ft 225 only needed 80 lbs for about a 1+" layer. I had plenty leftover for other tanks. I don't even wash the stuff, just dump it in and stir. It's got texture like sugar crystals. Have it in all my tanks and no problem with the hobs at all.
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+1
I’ve purchased from them per FINWIN’s recommendation. Never had any issues with it getting stirred up into the water column. I used it to mix some darker tones of brown into normal pfs.
 
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jjohnwm said:
Maybe not the perfect choice if the reddish colour is the goal, but...at 75% lower price...:) It's a very dense, heavy sand that doesn't stir up into the water column.
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Can you post some pics mate?
 
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Sassafras said:
Garnet sand is also very sharp. Be very careful if using a magnet or sponge type glass cleaner.
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Meaning it could possibly damage the mucous membrane in the mouth of fish that sift a lot.
 
I read somewhere on here someone used garnet sand and all there corydoras died as its very abrasive and somehow shaved off their whiskers so something to keep in mind if you have cories.

When i first read the title i was hoping you werent slowly sinking into a pit of quicksand and were asking us how to escape......
 
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danotaylor said:
Can you post some pics mate?
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Yep...but apparently not very quickly...:)

This sample is from the darker grey/black of the two bags I bought. Ruler is marked in inches. I will eventually try a tank using just this garnet rather than mixing it into pool filter sand.
garnet1.jpggarnet2.jpg
 
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C'est la vie to vacuuming that substrate.

I've tried the finer sands down to silica sized and after having tried it for a year or so decided to pitch it and use a larger grain, currently Peace River from CaribSea. The issue I had w/ the smaller grain was that it would occasionally get kicked up by a fish and pulled into a filter. I use FX6's and the finer grains would chew up filter impellers which eventually made the choice to have gone w/ a fine grain substrate seem more expensive than it had been worth.

Had I been running a sump or a filter that didn't pull quite as hard as an FX6 I may have kept the fine stuff longer.

Note that the finer the sand used the more important it will be that you cover your nose and mouth w/ a painter's mask as you want to avoid inhaling the dust from fine sands.
 
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