Black sand???

[tyjo1334]

Where can I find cheap black sand for my 210g im thinking around 300lbs im going to need? I have home depot and menards and lowes near my house.

 

[cdubel01]

i had to track it down through several pet stores in the area to find enough at one store to get about 80lbs. I tried the hardware stores (home depot, lowes, etc) and they never had color sand. I love the black sand in mine, but good luck finding that much. Make sure u wash it before u put it in...

 

[johno27]

you won't need 300lbs, 60-80 lbs should give you decent coverage. I think they discontinued 3m color quartz black so it is getting harder to find but that would be your best bet.

Good luck on the search

 

[keepinfish]

you can still find some 3m at the distributors, some places still have it. Estes now sells the exact same stuff as the 3m, just with estes name. See my avatar for 3m black (t) grade

 

[cdubel01]

you won't need 300lbs, 60-80 lbs should give you decent coverage. I think they discontinued 3m color quartz black so it is getting harder to find but that would be your best bet.

Good luck on the search

When I was looking for mine I was told that I would need about 1"-1.5" of sand along the bottom. Is that not the case? I think I bought about 80 lbs for my 72 Gal bow front, so wouldn't OP need more than me? Just asking for clarification...

 

[inssane]

Depending on how deep I still do the 1lb per gallon on average.

I got mine from pet supplies plus - I don't remember, maybe $6/10lb bag.
If you ask for a special order and small discount you should be able to get reasonable.

 

[cdubel01]

^that is what I went with, so ended up with 80 lbs rather than 70....

 

[stingraymond]

If you have a sandblasting joint near you, "Black Beauty" is inexpensive black sand. It is inert, they even use it for residential water filtration:

http://www.harscominerals.com/BlackBeauty/

A 50 pound bag is about $11.

 

[johno27]

I always prefer to go with less sand. I would rather deal with bare spots than dead spots.

So I usually just barely cover the bottom. I think 300 lbs would be crazy overkill either way

 

[inssane]

Well I am handicapped apparently because I use the right half of my computer screen at work and when I go to "new posts" in the forum, I only see the Subject of the topic.

The fact that I am in the Stingray forum makes the "little sand" notion perfectly logical.
I don't have rays (one day I will ) so I usually give my cichlids deeper sand to play around in.