Sand question (grain size)

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the big kahuna

the big kahuna

Aimara
MFK Member
Oct 13, 2007
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new york city
Preparing to use red garnet sand in my 300 gallon Aimara tank and honestly I'm a little confused with grain sizes mesh and mm. I want something heavier that won't stir easily.

I see Amazon with 10lb bags at .5mm-1mm grain and Grainger has 40-80 mesh grain size???

Would appreciate help from a knowledgeable person plz.

AWXZOM 10.5lb Natural South American Rainforest Sand, Aquarium red Sand, Lava Rock Soil, Succulent Sand Fish Tank Sand Aquarium Substrate Sand
https://a.co/d/0DgykUX


Garnet, 40 to 80 Mesh, Blast Media - 402F54|GAR8055 - Grainger
 
Not sure how important the color of garnet sand is to you, but I have found that different grain sizes have completely different "looks". I wanted a larger, uniform grain size and ordered #36 from zoro.com. when it arrived it was the sand on the right in the pics below. I reordered a 30-60 mesh from the same place (Zoro) and got the sand on the left. Big difference! Garnet does seem a bit heavier than regular silica sand, and I haven't had any problems with it. All depends on flow though.
Garnet Media correct type.JPGGarnet Media wrong type.JPG
 
Hello; If you have ever used an air rifle the BB's are 4 1/2 mm diameter. If that helps.
 
Sassafras said:
Not sure how important the color of garnet sand is to you, but I have found that different grain sizes have completely different "looks". I wanted a larger, uniform grain size and ordered #36 from zoro.com. when it arrived it was the sand on the right in the pics below. I reordered a 30-60 mesh from the same place (Zoro) and got the sand on the left. Big difference! Garnet does seem a bit heavier than regular silica sand, and I haven't had any problems with it. All depends on flow though.
View attachment 1550291View attachment 1550292
Click to expand...


Your pics came in top and bottom not left and right. That top pic red sand is exactly what I'm looking for. Is that the #36?
 
The red sand was the 30-60 mesh, smaller grit, sand. Had to sacrifice size for color. Evidently, garnet varies quite a bit depending on the source, but it seems to me like the larger grain size tends to be the browner color in my area.
 
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Sassafras said:
... Evidently, garnet varies quite a bit depending on the source...
Click to expand...

I've now bought three bags, on different ccasions spaced over a few months, from the same retailer. All three bags were marked identically, all the same supplier. Grain size was the same, in fact it was the only granulation that they sold.

All three were completely different colours. One was very dark grey, with a very few reddish granules mixed in, visible only in strong light. One was very reddish, approaching the colour of the left photo above; much too red for my taste. The last appeared to be a 50/50 mix of the two, creating an overall greyish-reddish-brown effect that I quite liked.

Don't forget, this stuff is being sold for use by sandblasters. They don't care what colour it is, as long as the grain size and weight is optimized for their purposes, so there's always going to be some variation in it. It's a natural substance, not created in a lab under controlled conditions, so colour is always going to be a bit of a crapshoot.
 
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