# My Experience with Tahitian Moon Sand



## LaniBaby (Apr 14, 2009)

I went out yesterday and got Tahitian Moon Sand (there's a thread in the care forum regarding rinsing and everything I did with it.) I put it in this morning and for the last hour, Crumb has been poking at it. He got in, eyed it suspiciously, and began inspecting each piece that wasn't quite black to see if it was food. Now he's touching it cautiously and staring at it, then me, then it, then me. It's sort of funny. I wanted the white sand but when I got to the store it was so fine it was practically like flour. This one's quite heavy and after some good rinsing, didn't cloud the water at all. Here are some photos of Crumb's new substrate and him inspecting it. Some are mildly unfocused but it's hard to get shots of a tank that is no longer reflecting light and a moving fish.  I've removed his short front grasses so I could observe him better for now. I'll probably change out Bluey's substrate this week.


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

Cute pics! He's a curious little guy, isn't he?


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## whitedevil (Apr 24, 2009)

that white bag musta been crushed badly, my white sand looks just like your black sand does. looks great.

My betta does do this too, infact he is eating off the bottom now instead of the top like half the time now its kinda neat, and he will even get the bloodworms moving around so the neons and cories can get some too. Its quite amusing.


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## LaniBaby (Apr 14, 2009)

there were about 5 bags of that white sand and it was extremely fine. it almost made me cough. i'm not sure what was up with it.

DQ: he is!! He inspects EVERYTHING! including the butter knife i put in there to brush off bubbles. He was refusing to get in the cup to be transfered back in his tank so i put my hand in and ushered him in. He looked annoyed and then finally was like Ok.... and he just swam right in. He's a really funny little betta. Not afraid of ANYTHING.


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## whitedevil (Apr 24, 2009)

LaniBaby said:


> there were about 5 bags of that white sand and it was extremely fine. it almost made me cough. i'm not sure what was up with it.
> 
> DQ: he is!! He inspects EVERYTHING! including the butter knife i put in there to brush off bubbles. He was refusing to get in the cup to be transfered back in his tank so i put my hand in and ushered him in. He looked annoyed and then finally was like Ok.... and he just swam right in. He's a really funny little betta. Not afraid of ANYTHING.


they were open? 
mine came in a sealed bag. If that black sand was white it would be the same as what you ended up with.

Colors do that to your mind.


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## GrinningLotus (Apr 29, 2009)

Oh wow, the sand really brings out the fish itself and the tank decorations. Also he's a very pretty fish. ^_^


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## LaniBaby (Apr 14, 2009)

nono, it wasn't open. it was just ripped a little i think so some of it was coming out of one of them. the one i bought was sealed for sure. 

i heard the black sand brought out fish colors so he seems to be popping a little more! i'll see what it does to my blue/black guy. and thank you. i think he's pretty, too.


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## whitedevil (Apr 24, 2009)

where did you get it from? the white is just really dusty, im not sure how the black is since i dont use it.

Im added rocks from my house to the tank and that seems to bring more color into the tank, I mean I like white I like the super clean look of it but these native river rocks are very colorful and the fish love em, every new rock they gotta check out and hang out on it till the kuhlis emerge from the rock "creek" then its all over the kuhlis take em over.


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## LaniBaby (Apr 14, 2009)

i stuck some of my old blue glass stones in there. i made a little "walking path" for him. it looks nice. adds a little light. Maybe eventually I'll get white. I don't know. If you look at the caribsea website, it says that the white sand is much finer than the black. This stuff that i found (both caribsea) was definitely super powdery. maybe yours is a different brand?


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

I think the stones look great in your tank.


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## LaniBaby (Apr 14, 2009)

thanks. at first, he was using them as safety's. He would lie on the one in the corner and poke at the sand, like a little raft. i saw him rubbing on the sand last night, though, so I guess he's getting used to it. But i think he still likes his stones since he's used to them.


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## JingleAllTheWay (Mar 21, 2009)

I really like that. The black makes everything look really cool.


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## whitedevil (Apr 24, 2009)

Hmmm not sure, I got mine from petsmart. only other places that had aquarium sand was salt specialty stores in my area.










cept its white, however caribsea.com says the marine sand( white) and TMS( black) are the same size large AND small grains.


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## LaniBaby (Apr 14, 2009)

that's exactly the stuff i bought there in the photo. and you're right! The website does say same size. But the white one says good for soft bellied and the tahitian says not suitable for softbellied fish. But for me, looking at their photos it looks like a HUGE difference between the black and white grain size. And truly, they had 5 bags of the white (only one seemed to be leaking) and it was literally like flour powdery. I almost sneezed (marine sand.) Maybe if i see white in a larger grain somewhere, i'll get it. But everything i've seen it's super super fine. It's ok, tho. The little guy seems to like the tahitian just fine.


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## Elisew (Mar 25, 2009)

Looks really lovely LaniBaby! 8)

I popped in to see one of my friends yesterday and she also has the same in a small tank for her Lobster. I`d never really thought about using sand but after seeing your pics and my friends tank i might consider it in the future :-D

Lise x


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## whitedevil (Apr 24, 2009)

LaniBaby said:


> that's exactly the stuff i bought there in the photo. and you're right! The website does say same size. But the white one says good for soft bellied and the tahitian says not suitable for softbellied fish. But for me, looking at their photos it looks like a HUGE difference between the black and white grain size. And truly, they had 5 bags of the white (only one seemed to be leaking) and it was literally like flour powdery. I almost sneezed (marine sand.) Maybe if i see white in a larger grain somewhere, i'll get it. But everything i've seen it's super super fine. It's ok, tho. The little guy seems to like the tahitian just fine.


Its very good looking dont get me wrong im just trying to understand why they did this. Yes I should have known, white sand is is usually calcium and black is usually volcanic or metallic.

Check this out, has a real nice feature to it

AquariumSands.com


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