I need ideas for substrate

[Corrado93]

I use cruched coral and obviously it is white. I find that with a white substrate if you have strong lighting it gets too bright and can wash out the fish colors.
I am currently on the quest to find a nice Dark Brown sand. Its harder than i thought it would be. Most sands are either white, black or light beige(light beige ends up looking pinkish with lighting).

C

 

[CWJ]

Argonite is worth the little extra work as far as its benefits of helping to buffer the water I think, depth can be anywhere you want it 1", 2" I usually do 2 ppg but what ever you do don't stack the rocks on top of the sand they will dig under them!

 

[CWJ]

I use cruched coral and obviously it is white. I find that with a white substrate if you have strong lighting it gets too bright and can wash out the fish colors.
I am currently on the quest to find a nice Dark Brown sand. Its harder than i thought it would be. Most sands are either white, black or light beige(light beige ends up looking pinkish with lighting).

C

I used 3m colorquartz "tan" size T in one of my tanks, looks great, they have 11 different colors to choose from and $20 for 50lbs.

 

[LadyBarbara001]

I went to a landscape supply place and bought something called Sandblast. It's a nice medium brown in my tank and it was $4.50 for 100 pounds.

 

[Marius]

I love the aragonite, it buffers up the pH and keeps it there with the water changes. No problems.

 

[Corrado93]

I used 3m colorquartz "tan" size T in one of my tanks, looks great, they have 11 different colors to choose from and $20 for 50lbs.

Would you be able to post a picture of that tank?
Where did you buy it from?

thanks
C

 

[LadyBarbara001]

I have hard water and the ph out of the tap is 8.0. I"m not worried about the buffering. Would there be another reason to use Argonite if not for the buffering effects? I mean, it looks good, but I'm finding it harder to work with than sand. Is there another reason to use it?

 

[mahemaheman85]

I have hard water and the ph out of the tap is 8.0. I"m not worried about the buffering. Would there be another reason to use Argonite if not for the buffering effects? I mean, it looks good, but I'm finding it harder to work with than sand. Is there another reason to use it?

ya beleive it or not if you look it up or read the package next time you get the chance it helps withs a couple things like ammonia, nitrates, etc

 

[kydsexy]

find what you want to simulate the environment you want. diggers like to dig. 1 inch won't cut it. darker color sands bring out better colors in fish but too dark will show all the detritus in the tank. be sure if you purchase sand that says "for reefs" that there is no liquid in the bag of sand -- live sand. other than that a nice smaller grain crushed coral mixed in with sand will be excellent for peacocks

 

[Marius]

I use cruched coral and obviously it is white. I find that with a white substrate if you have strong lighting it gets too bright and can wash out the fish colors.
I am currently on the quest to find a nice Dark Brown sand. Its harder than i thought it would be. Most sands are either white, black or light beige(light beige ends up looking pinkish with lighting).

C

I used a mix of aragonite (white) with tahitian moon sand (black)... worked like a charm.