Resetting 120

[FrannyB]

Seachem's Onyx Tahitian Moon Sand is 19.99 per 20lbs. cheaper even.

[Jim Miller]

wrong post

[FrannyB]

huh?

[Jim Miller]

i was confused...not unusual...

need sleep

jim

[DonkeyFish]

If we're actually talking about the Tahitian Moon sand... I personally would like to strongly recommend against it. The grains are SUPER small and very light. It gets stirred up very easily and dusts all over the place. Also, as a side note, we would place a sizable bet on it being welding sl*g... the byproduct of welding. Which means it's made of all sorts of things that long-term probably aren't a very good idea for fishtanks. Plus if you have bottom-dwellers the particles are probably sharp on their bellies/barbels. Of course this is not proven, it's just an educated guess. I had it for some time in one of my tanks and finally got rid of it because I was sick of it going all over the place all the time.

Just my unsolicited opinion

[FrannyB]

So what do you think about the Flourite Black?

[150EH]

Flourite Black is ok, I use the Red. I really would like to try the Brown from Aquarium Plants dot com, I saw it in a couple of tanks and it looks nice, I have heard a couple of people say they feel the black doesn't look natural but that's just an opinion, but it seems that people like the substrate.

[londonloco]

My favorite substrate for a planted tank was mts capped with 3M color quartz. 3M stopped making the color quartz a few years ago I've also had tanks with:

1 - PFS and PFS mixed with dolomite: it's ok, don't like the way it darkens after 6 months or so.
2 - Eco Complete - not a fan, I don't like the size, seems "muddier"
3 - Aqua Soil - very new, verdict still out
4 - Tahitian Moon sand- Like Jen said, very small grain size, not a fan either, I'd rather use PFS.
5 - Red Flourite - even after hours of rinsing I had a muddy mess. But once it settles, its ok.
6 - Black Flourite - my substrate of choice now when used as a cap over mts. It rinses great, I've never had a muddy mess like with the Red. The only complaint I have is the grain size, or too many of them, it's not uniform sized like the 3M was.

I say try the Black Flourite Fran, you'll probably like it.

[Jim Miller]

I like Flourite Black Sand. The small grain size is great for capturing stems when planting.

jim

[150EH]

I don't rinse substrates at all, why toss your nutrients down the drain. I just add the substrate to the tank and cover it with newspaper and place a paper plate in the area of impact from the water source, then when it's full remove everything at a snails pace and you should always have crystal clear water.

I like the weight of Flourite to hold plants but it lacks any nutrients and I have only used Stratum recently and it is very, very light but somehow holds the plants in and the roots should have no problem growning in this stuff but I wouldn't use it in anything but a planted shrimp tank, it does buffer the water nicely.