So many substrate question for my new 120, help!!!

DrUgS

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 20, 2008
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I just got a new 120 gallon (5 L x1.5 W x2 H) and I have it cycled, but nothing else in the tank. I am going to most likely keep piranhas in it for now and possibly large cichlids down the road.

After reading through some of the forums I am thinking of getting 3M color quartz. I am not sure if I should go with S (smaller size) or T grade. I dont know if it will get kicked up too much if I end up throwing a cichlid in the tank because I have never used sand before. So question #1 S or T?

Question #2 is how much to buy? I was thinking 100 pounds would be in the ballpark of what I needed.

#3 question is, whats the best way to clear this color quartz? I read somewhere that you can put it in a pillow case or something and rinse it out. Anyone familiar with sand/color quartz and can shed some light on this?

I'll try to get a pic up of the tank, its black trim with black wood stand. I was leaning toward white sand at first, now I am thinking straight black. Any input would be great. Thanks guy/gals :)
 

deeda

Silver Tier VIP
MFK Member
Mar 26, 2008
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2,915
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Medina, Ohio
I am using Colorquartz S-grade in my 220G African tank. My fish do kick up quite a bit as it is very fine, about 0.21mm average.

The amount you need depends on how deep you want it. I average around 1" to 2".

The initial cleaning can be tedious. I put 10 lbs in a clean pail & rinsed while stirring with my hand, pour off 'dirty' water, rinse & stir, rinse & stir. It may also discolor your hands, sink & pail so you may want to consider gloves.

I am using combination of colors-black, white, smoke & brown until I thought it looked natural to me.
 
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