Sand
- Thread starter aj12790
- Start date
i've heard estes is good, but i got a bag of blue sand that gave a very light blue tint to the water. i rinsed it before i put it in the tank. i was still getting a slight blue after two weeks and a lot of water changes, so i took it out. it didn't seem to hurt the fish but i didn't want to take a chance. maybe i got a bad bag or it isnt anything to worry about.
I use black estes - it was pricey but I love it. I picked it up from an lfs for around $4 / 5lb bag. There were some places selling it cheaper online (petluvers I think) but with shipping it worked out to be waaay more expensive.
It looks great and the rays seem fine on it. It's much heavier than the playsand I have in my other tanks so it doesn't get kicked up as much. The trick is to ignore the instructions (it claims to be prewashed) and wash it really well before putting it in. I dumped each bag into a 5g bucket and swished it round with water 3-4 times before puting it into my tank. There was definitely lots of fine black dust that the washing got rid of.
I've heard you want to avoid any aragonite based sand since it will harden the water. The Southdown playsand I have in my other tanks has hardened the water a little plus the grains seem pretty sharp. I've also heard that "tahitian moon sand" and "black beauty" have very sharp grains that will irritate a ray's belly.
It looks great and the rays seem fine on it. It's much heavier than the playsand I have in my other tanks so it doesn't get kicked up as much. The trick is to ignore the instructions (it claims to be prewashed) and wash it really well before putting it in. I dumped each bag into a 5g bucket and swished it round with water 3-4 times before puting it into my tank. There was definitely lots of fine black dust that the washing got rid of.
I've heard you want to avoid any aragonite based sand since it will harden the water. The Southdown playsand I have in my other tanks has hardened the water a little plus the grains seem pretty sharp. I've also heard that "tahitian moon sand" and "black beauty" have very sharp grains that will irritate a ray's belly.