Anybody use colorquartz?

[Moloch]

How did you clean/prepare it before adding it to your tank? My method for play sand was just using a 10gal'ish bucket/pale to pour the sand into, then putting that under my shower head (on a hose/handle with good pressure) and churning the sand with the shower jet pointed at it. This would give me a nice nasty film at the top of the pale which I could then dump out without losing any actual sand, 6 or 7 times per load of sand and it was rinsing clean.

The colorquartz doesn't seem to be cooperating. I put it in the same pale and use the same method, but it seems like its just dumping sand out more than it is grime & nastyness. My shower stall is about covered in sand now from trying to do it 3 or so times thinking it'll start getting better and there's just that many fine particles.

Whats the deal?

 

[Moloch]

Ok, if I just leave the bucket with sand under the faucet and let it run, the water stays clean. If I disturb the sand at all, it forms little balls (almost like miniature cocopuffs...) that float to the top. Should I keep disturbing the sand until this stops happening, or will this always happen?

It seems kind of opposite of what everyone says about the colorquartz settling quickly...This stuff isn't really settling.

It is the finer grade colorquartz...

 

[Moloch]

nvm im done.

Decided to just churn it a bit, run water through it until it was running clear and call it good.

The color turned out REALLY red, and thats a bit upsetting, but I think it'll grow on me, especially if/when the fish's colors adapt to suit and I get my piece of manzanita and attach plants to it.

There are a lot of air bubbles sitting on top of the sand and its still clumping a bit in ball form...but I'm assuming those two things will fade with a bit of time & settling. It doesn't seem like my water is any cloudier than it was before.

overall I'd say success. We'll see how it goes over the next few days. At least none of my fish are dead so far...I did put close to 15ml of prime into a 65gal tank with a 20% wc & the sand change....so I'd say there's DEFINITELY enough prime to make all the water safe

Now hopefully my cycle finishes and my water clears up in the next few weeks....

 

[the_deeb]

Could you let me know where you found your colorquartz? I'm going to need some sand soon and a local source for colorquartz would be great.

 

[Moloch]

Yeah, In Raleigh off Capital Blvd & 540, near the Petco. Its a small (seems family run) stone/masonry/etc type of store. They have the full selection of colors & grades and knew immediately when I asked for colorquartz that it was for an aquarium Cost me 25$ for a 50lb bag of the finer grade sand. Let me know if you need more detail than that. I might have a phone number or something on the receipt, I can't even think of the name of the place off the top of my head.

 

[imafreak]

Are they still making color quartz or once it's gone it's gone?

 

[West1]

I put a 50LB bag in a 5gallon home depot bucket. Took it to the yard and put the hose on high... I just let the water pressure stir up the sand as I pushed the hose up and down. Took me about 15 minutes as the water just watered the grass

G/L

 

[Thalan]

Those little floating clumps are smaller grains that will float easier so you want them gone. I have black colorquartz in one of my tank, and while rinsing I was concerned about losing sand but once it was in the tank I was very happy with it.
I got mine from a building supply company that used for resurfacing pools and patios. Found them by using the dealer locator on 3Ms website, but I'm not sure if that exists anymore.

 

[Moloch]

Those little floating clumps are smaller grains that will float easier so you want them gone. I have black colorquartz in one of my tank, and while rinsing I was concerned about losing sand but once it was in the tank I was very happy with it.
I got mine from a building supply company that used for resurfacing pools and patios. Found them by using the dealer locator on 3Ms website, but I'm not sure if that exists anymore.

Yeah thats kind of what I figured, it just seemed like ALL of the sand would do it, I was probably just too nervous about throwing that 25$ down the drain.

Either way, it looks pretty good now. There are still some ball clumps on the bottom and I have some sand floating at the top, but I think after a few vacuums & water changes it'll balance out.

The color is not at ALL what I expected though. I got the chocolate/dark brown and it came out looking pretty damn red. Is growing on me though, we'll see how it looks once I get my manzanita & plants.