Sand as a substrate

[silicagel]

All I can say is TMS stands for tahitian moon sand.

It's an attractive substrate, but I wouldn't recommend it for a large community and/or planted tank(or any other uniformly colored sand for that matter). For me, it loses it's appeal the minute detritus starts to pile up on the surface.

Also, it's jagged edged compared to most sand, which is rounded, and that's prompted some people to say it's unsafe. Although I'd never use it again for the same purpose, I'm currently using a small layer of it in a 'nano' planted tank and I've got numerous small fish and invertibrates who don't seem to have any issues with it - despite the stories.

[Rex Grigg]

Mixing sand and pea gravel will only result in the sand at the bottom and the gravel on top. As long as your "sand" has a grain size around 1-2 mm you will be fine.

[derekkim]

I use Quikrete All-purpose sand for my aquarium and that seemed to work fine. I tried a bit of a risk by not testing the water chem but it seems to be doing well. The one big problem I find is that the sand particles get on the plant leaves (especially hornwort) which amkes it look almost brown.