Hey everyone went and picked up some bdbs from tractor supply today and was wondering if this was the same stuff every one is using ?

Seems to look different than what I've seen in other posts?

It has small brown peices in it. Is that normal?

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That looks like it , new graphics on bag maybe . Last I got had the brown bits too , but no problems with using it .

Awesome! I think I'm going to start a thread on the progress of this tank. I just sprayed the back of the glass with black plasti dip. Hoping to get the bdbs in the tank tommorow!

Thanks!

yep looks like the same stuff. does look like a different bag though. I have gotten a bag or 2 that have the brown pieces in it. one thing I recommend is put some in a bucket or cup and see if the surface of the water has an oily residue before adding it to a tank. i personally have not run into this issue but i have seen post on another forum showing that it had this petroleum type substance on it.

Yes, that's it. Still have a bag riding shotgun in my mustang that I've failed to bring in the house.

Little brown to red bits are normal but not too many.

If it appears to rinse oily rinse smaller portions of it in hot water.

I got about the same thing from Harbor Freight. Small print on the bag notes Black Diamond, and it was quite fine and had no brown bits in it. Worked just fine.

Has anyone noticed broken wire strands in their bds? I've gotten a bag off eBay claiming it can be used as aquarium substrate but the many broken wire strands gets me worried. Btw, these strands are not magnetic as I thought of using a magnet which didn't magnetize it. "sigh"

Bump:
Are those broken wire strands in the mix?

Broken wire strands? As in real wire?

Cant say it doesn't surprise me.

Do you have any pictures of this??

if you look in the op's 2nd picture, about 1/3 down from top and in middle you can see what I'm talking bout.
ps sorry for the post in this thread as I've found another pointing to the same objects(wire strands, imo) in which Burr posted pictures of this. He says it's no problemo, sooo I guess it's normal.

So its not wire, it just looks like wire? Or, is it actually sharp pointed like wire?

Okay of you are talking about the picture in the other BDBs thread running right now then yes, those are just normal parts. Nothing to worry about.

I thought you were talking more of a foreign object of some sort!

It's not wire strands it's still coal slag,more like little "glass" tubes, I haven't really found that fish have a problem with it even with fish that take the substrate into their mouth and spit it out, those pieces just happened to be narrow enough to get through their screens for size imo, you would need a different stage than screening into different grits to remove those "wire" pieces.

Maybe some coal slag has actual bits of wire but I've never personally seen it.

I don't know for sure if it's wire as some of the thicker pieces are hard to crack since it's a short piece but the thin pieces I've snapped in 1/2, in the batch that I've been trying to weed out what I can of these wirery looking pieces, some of them are 1/4" - 1/2" needle thin and sharp. I got stuck a couple of times, lol. Today my neighbors across the street came home and saw me meticulously going thru my coal slage hand by hand, I could hear chuckles as they got out and figure they were talking between themselves of me panning for Gold, lol. Geez, I'm almost ready to throw in the towel and go get some Petco Black sand, Eco-complete or Flourite Black(not the sand).
Some are thicker too but not as sharp. I've still got 10 lbs to weed out so I'll take some pics.

Bump: yeah, since someone mentioned there could be glass in the slag coal I was figuring it could be strands of melted glass or if coal slage melts then... and some of them are sewing needle thin and sharp. Don't ask how I know cause I've stabbed myself more than once walking on them needles my wife somehow drops in the carpet. Yikes!

At one point this was all a molten material, drips can occur during cooling etc..
Yes this can produce pointed pieces of irregular grit.

Don't mind the little things!