# Petco Sand vs. Caribsea



## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

I need to redo a tank and use sand and I'd like to use a dark color. That pretty much leaves me with three options:
Black Beauty blasting sand (which is actually not sand but iron slag)
Caribsea Tahitian Moon sand
Petco brand sand

I'm more or less ruling out Black Beauty because it's iron slag, sharp and not inert. My problem with the Caribsea sand is that it may be too fine and compact too much around the roots of my plants. But I had a not so good experience with one 5 lb bag of Petco sand. I admit that it may have been my fault, however, because I didn't really rinse it but just poured a bit into the tank (it was for an excess of baby Malaysian Trumpet Snails). 

Sooo, my question is: has anyone used the black or dark red/brown Petco sand in large quantities and how has it worked? Has anyone used Caribsea sand in a heavily planted tank?

Are they any other kinds of dark colored sand out there? Has anyone used the new Seachem Fluorite sand? Does it leave soil deposits like regular Fluorite?

Feedback would be much appreciated.


EDIT: Upon closer research, it does appear that Tahitian Moon is not as fine as the previous Caribsea sand I had, Moonlight Sand. But I'd still really love feedback on everyone's sand experiences.


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## Tikibirds (May 26, 2011)

I have petco sand in blue, natural and grey. Its not as fine as say, beach sand, so when you add water it wont get all cloudy.

One five pound bag will cover a 10G but it wont be very thick.


















someone had a hard time with caribsea. I think it was silverfang?


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## Tikibirds (May 26, 2011)

I have petco sand in blue, natural and grey. Its not as fine as say, beach sand, so when you add water it wont get all cloudy.

One five pound bag will cover a 10G but it wont be very thick.


















someone had a hard time with caribsea. I think it was silverfang?


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

And you haven't had any problems with it, Tiki? The price, I think, is about the same for a 20lb bag of this and a 20lb bag of Tahitian Moon. I'll have to ask Silverfang which type of Caribsea she had.


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## Tikibirds (May 26, 2011)

nope, no problems at all. I dont have live plants though


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## JahBetta (Nov 5, 2011)

I've got a densely planted tank with Caribsea Instant Aquarium Tahitian Moon Sand.

No problems with plants at all; the crypts, anubias, swords, cambomba, rotala waliichii, anarchis, they all love it from what I can see. There might be a little problem with the Eleocharis Belem right now (dwarf hairgrass) but I think it is just taking longer to get acclimated.

IMO, I'd go with TMS, especially for a nice feel. It's an extremely dark and nice shade of black that contrasts driftwood and plants / fish really well.


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Thank you for the suggestion, JahBetta. At this point, that's kind of what I'm leaning toward just because I haven't had much luck with Petco brand products - one of their silk plants leaked dye into the tank, someone else had one of their heaters leak chemicals into the water and kill a betta . . . 

My dwarf hairgrass didn't even like my tank with Seachem Fluorite so I'm not even going to bother with it when I switch over to all sand. 

I'm hoping the dark substrate makes the colors on my rummynoses show up more. All I see are red snouts and the rest of the body blends in with the tan sand.


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