Granite sand?

[Mike berry]

I have 75 pounds of white aquarium sand and I wanted to mix it with approximately the same amount with a darker sand like grey or black so my local hardware store has Granite sand that is slightly larger than aquarium sand , like play sand.
I know that Granite is considered safe and non reactive or also known as inert however I just wanted to make sure that Granite sand and regular white Marine sand from Estis mixed together would be a decent substrate, I just purchased a brand new Top Fin 120 gallon aquarium from PetSmart and they had it marked down to cost so I got it for $300 with hoods light stand and glass which is half inch black Edge glass and a very beautiful stand it was originally $800 so I couldn't pass it up. I have an Oscar red tiger that has the name of Vera I originally bought her out on a whim because she was so cute and I love Oscars and I put her in a 10 gallon tank she was only one inch long when I bought her she is now approximately 8 and 9 inches long 3 months later which is phenomenal growth for an Oscar then I have a Jack Dempsey and one other kind of random cichlid I just wanted to put them in something to make them very happy so I'm building a new floor in my room and the stand to put my tank and its stand on level and very solidly mounted I plan on using very few plants but I do want a couple low light aquarium plants Java ferns maybe some type of moss whatever Driftwood mostly rock creatures with a sand waterfall possibly and then the Knicks and would be preferable but white would be fine by itself.
Anyway does Hank came with an undergravel filter which I don't plan to use normally but I figured if I put the undergravel filter on it then cover it with the sand and then I can hook up a powerhead to it that I want comes on for a couple of minutes maybe once a month or once every couple weeks to push water up through the sand there for releases in the gases that build up in it instead of having a stir it like hydrogen sulfide and other gases but I'm running that and reverse flow pushing water underneath the sand up words with a powerhead I don't know if it'll work and if it does awesome if not oh well but I'm going to try because if I don't try I'll complain and moan and pace around for 4 months OCD like wishing I had anyway sorry for such a long post and poor punctuation grammar and such I'm talk to text thing on my phone because my keyboard is too tiny for my really fat fingers and I appreciate anybody who can let me know how possibly one how would granite gray and white sand look together hopefully similar to the white and black cichlids and sand and hopefully grants and will be enough to not affect my water quality I almost wouldn't mind a slight boost in PH because my tap water is 6.4 and I would like to have a bit higher so I don't have to add chemicals so I made Barry a little bit of crushed Coral or some other type of Casius Rock that would help before the pH but I don't have the money to spend on cichlid sand anyway thank you y'all have a great night I'll be looking forward to response any pictures of white and gray sand in a tank would be great Mike

 

[skjl47]

I put the undergravel filter on it then cover it with the sand and then I can hook up a powerhead to it that I want comes on for a couple of minutes maybe once a month or once every couple weeks to push water up through the sand there for releases in the gases that build up in it instead of having a stir it like hydrogen sulfide

Hello; interesting idea. The reverse flow is something I have considered but have not yet tried. I have UGF (undergravel filters) in two of my currently running tanks operating constantly on air. I did get a powerhead with the intention of doing the reverse flow.

I have quartz gravel of about bb size to small pea size at a depth of nearly five inches. I have been using this gravel since getting it back in the 1960 and 70's. I prefer this size over sand.

While I do not know from experience, my guess is that the powerhead likely will not do much in just a few minutes. To disperse the build up of toxic gases may take the powerhead running a while each day or even constantly. My take being that flow thru an UGF is sluggish at best even in my more coarse gravel and may be more so in the finer sand.

how would granite gray and white sand look together

Hello; Much of the quartz gravel I have is a black/white. It looks pretty good. Not as good as the solid black however.

Good luck

 

[Mike berry]

I love the white but ONLY IF YOU HAVE THE RIGHT LIGHT! I'll be going with 50-50. Coralife even though its freshwater. And like said, or implied, it will be an experiment with the ugf in reverse. But the white and Grey think would be a slight take on the cichlid sand.

 

[Mike berry]

So I went and got a cup of granite sand and mixed it with equal amount of sand and put it in a tiny aquarium using my light and it didn't look too good but when that was only in certain places it looked great so I built a very small rock structure from rocks in my driveway mixed the sand 50-50 with the granite and then added back in between the rocks to fill the gaps but regular wipes and elsewhere so that made it look weathered like the rock had broken down some but it wasn't everywhere I heard that feeling the cracks at a rock structure with sand as a way to keep detritus out and make them more stable and look more realistic like they've been there for a while so I think I know what I'm doing now

 

[Imsobored152]

I used black blasting sand in mine, but mines all black