PLEASE help to Stop the Death

[chefkeith]

Leslie's Swimming Pools Supply has some great Quartz Pool Filter Sand. I think it was about $8 per 50 lb bag.


There's a few Leslies in your area also.
http://www.lesliespool.com/

[Tinman]

Inert is what you want to see on the bag. It will clearly state INERT. I do not trust claims like aquarium safe etc. only inert. The plain sand looks much whiter in the tank . Mine flows across and around.Use 1" or about 20 cm is all you need. Here is a pic with the generic sand in place,this appeared almost tan in the bag. Just drain some water on it to temper it before placing it in the tank and before hand put it in a bucket and use a water wand to rinse or flow anything out like dust outside.This is a much cleaner enviroment overall and helps me maintain good water conditions.Your loaches will Thank You,mine did......and I was also convinced to do it on this site..... Your biggest risk is removing the waste and gravel too quick as I was already substrate free because of your problem which resurfaced for years here until I just removed all of my gravel. I like to say most keep 5 sides of their tanks clean ,I just keep six. I only have substrate in a few tanks and then only if required specificaly by a fishes needs.

[lordgreggreg]

hi! this is Laura, Greg's finace. I was doing some research on the pool sand you guy's had mentioned and I came across a new interesting type of substrate. It's called Color Quartz and it comes in a variety of colors. It's made of quartz and covered in ceramic. I read a lot of posts about it and have found out that it is said to be totally inert, doesn't affect any chemical composition of the tank, very easy to clean, a little heavier than regular sand, so it doesn't stay stirred up for too long.
Anyways, after extensive reading, Greg and I were considering switching to this stuff. It looks very cool and comes in two different grains: s- which is fine like sand and is said to be like ball bearings, and t- which is more coarse and said to be angular,irregular shapes. The site I read all this info on was a cichlid site, so most of them preferred the t grain for there fish, however a surprising number liked the finer version more.
Also, many of them found several places you could buy it only, and a few different companies in which you could buy it from. Such being Dura-flex which is said to be the same thing.
http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/e ... /Crystals/
http://www.hovertrowel.com/aggregates.html
http://www.dur-a-flex.com/our_products/ ... spx?sid=14

The Cichlid forum in which I found all this information at is:
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/view ... c&&start=0
On that site someone posted a link to a page that has the color quartz product data sheet:
http://multimedia.mmm.com/mws/mediawebs ... Y_zVooooN-
So after much reading, we think that this is a good option. The colors are also very nice too. Greg wants to do as one person did where they mixed the red with black, using lava rocks and made it look like mars. I think that'd be pretty neat, but I'd prefer a more natural look. However I don't think I'm going to win on this one.
There were also some cases where people got 3m to send them color samples in vials and they got to mix and match and get the perfect color for them for their lighting. Others weren't as lucky and only got a plastic sheet in the mail with the photos of the colors. Perhaps it's all in who you speak to.
Anyways, we're very interested in what you guys think about this stuff. Whether you think it's a good plan or not.
Can't wait to hear back from you!
~Laura

[newshound]

not sure so check this but isn't lava rock full of sharp edges?
your loaches need sand.