Black blasting sand

klibs said:

makes a great cap (assuming you mean with dirt/soil). no real benefits nutrient-wise for the plants but it is great to plant in. very heavy and consistent so it holds plants down really well. if you have never used it then I recommend you try it. it's only like $8/50lb

nothing to worry about. just rinse it out in some large buckets before you put it in the tank. it comes pretty dusty.

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Kubla said:

I just redid a 20g long this weekend. I had plenty of flourite and EcoComplete around but hate planting in the stuff. I ran down and got a busted open bag of BDBS for $4. I read where someone else here used it without rinsing. I dumped it in the tank and added water. No dirt, the only issue at all was a little bit of stuff floating on the surface. I scooped them out with a net and everything looks great! YMMV!

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liveplants said:

Also anyone keeping loaches and cories find that this sand hurts the barbels at all?

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klibs said:

makes a great cap (assuming you mean with dirt/soil). no real benefits nutrient-wise for the plants but it is great to plant in. very heavy and consistent so it holds plants down really well. if you have never used it then I recommend you try it. it's only like $8/50lb

nothing to worry about. just rinse it out in some large buckets before you put it in the tank. it comes pretty dusty.

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Kubla said:

Be careful rinsing it. A lot of the fines want to float at first and you might get a fairly decent quantity of black dust off of it. It might be a problem in a bathtub!

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