This is our first time with garnet sand. It came quickly and well packed from this vendor despite the box being toast on arrival. I just poured it right into the tank; no dust issues as is common with other sands. It's not evident from other pictures I've seen online, but the sand has a sparkle to it up-close, which is kinda cool. It's also dense/heavy enough not to be disturbed by a reasonably strong current... again, different than the pool-filter sand I've used in the past. I was also worried that the garnet would be irritatingly red, but so far I'm not too annoyed by it. Not sure if that's because I don't mind it or because it's novel LOL.
It IS making it obvious to bichir-girl how much poop her ornate is producing. We've been calling this tank our "show" tank, but I think it has officially become the "diet" tank.