[Oscar Madison]

Been trying to get a new tank up and running, having a few issues with this product. I rinsed the product quite a bit but still when disturbed a substantial amount of sand gets suspended into the water column clouding the water. Did I not rinse enough or is this to be expected for sand? Also when the T5 lights are on the sand looks more grey than black. Anyone else use this substrate? Do you have the same problems? Not real happy with the stuff so far.

 

[randpost]

All fluorite is cloudy. The cloud will clear. When it does clear, that suspended sediment can be kicked up when you disturb the substrate. After a few month that sediment layer will find its way deeper into the substrate and you will be able to move substrate without much of a cloud. I rinsed my red fluorite and black sand for a full day and I still had cloudy water. Its my only negative with the product.

The black sand is s fairly black. It will look more black once that dust on top sinks into the substrate. Still, it won't be super dark black like tar.

I didn't like my fluorite at first, but since then my plants have done so well that I can't fault it anymore. My hc carpet is spreading.

I'm going to try a different product for my new tank. Maybe stratum for my shrimp

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

[Monster Fish]

I use it to cap dirt. To be honest, it's not really good to use as a cap. It's very fine and is very light. It's easily kicked up and displaced by my filter. The sand also looks more gray than black. Regular Flourite is better imo. If you want a jet black substrate, go with black diamond blasting sand.

 

[MERSF559]

+1 on flourite being cloudy. ihave the regular flourite substrate and man when I firdt set my tank it up, it was super cloudy and lasted for a week straight.

 

[im2smart4u]

I HATED the Flourite black sand I had in my 16 gallon tanks. Even after over a year, I never had all the small stuff settle to the bottom like randpost said. I didn't even mess with it much, but the fish would stir it up. It ended up ruining my Aquaclear filter. I would personally never use it again. I have black diamond blasting sand in my tanks now. It is WAY cheaper, more black, and it doesn't float around in the water column as much (though it still does it some).

 

[randpost]

I HATED the Flourite black sand I had in my 16 gallon tanks. Even after over a year, I never had all the small stuff settle to the bottom like randpost said. I didn't even mess with it much, but the fish would stir it up. It ended up ruining my Aquaclear filter. I would personally never use it again. I have black diamond blasting sand in my tanks now. It is WAY cheaper, more black, and it doesn't float around in the water column as much (though it still does it some).

I'm only using 1/4 black sand for my substrate. The other 3/4 is red fluorite. Probably why mine settled better.

You can see in the pic my sediment is 1/4 down from the top.

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

[Oscar Madison]

Thanks for the advice. I'll keep it for now cause I'm not in the mood to start over at this point. It seems to have calmed down for now as long as I work very gingerly in the tank. Looks like planting will be somewhat of a challege.

 

[lochaber]

I've got a tank now that I set up with flourite black sand capping MGOCPM.

I did a little bit of washing at first, maybe a couple rinses in a 5-gallon bucket, but then I got sick of it and quit. (I'm lazy and I hate washing substrate...)

Set up my tank, but the dirt in, then the sand, and planted it. I kept misting it fairly heavily as I was planting it. Then I added water behind a mattenfilter, and let it diffuse through the sponge, so that it didn't disturb the substrate.

Worked great, and was crystal clear from the beginning.

It does shift around fairly easy, and if I'm not careful with the direction of the filter outflow (or if I loose too much water from evaporation...), I'll get noticeable hollows and drifts and such. Snails and fish level things back out after the initial problem is corrected.

 

[Soyerpan]

I like The Black Sand. If you are impatient and fuzzy planter, no bueno but the plants, especially runner-creeping carpeters do well and love the CEC. If it's too fine or light mix with inert, courser black sand but maybe small ratio of the other as just a course grade variety and concerns over compaction.