Carib Sea Aragonite Aquarium Sand - 10 lbs - Natural Substrate for Marine & Reef Tanks, Supports pH Balance, Enhances Coral Growth & Water Clarity

A very nice fine, white sand (the online picture looks much pinker than it actually is, at least on my screens.) I use it in multiple tanks with medium-to-deep sandbeds. It's not so bright that it pulls your eyes to it yet gives a very nice contrast to dark rocks, desired algae and colorful corals. With a deep sandbed you will definitely see the various colors of the underlying algae against the glass or acrylic. I prefer a very natural look and I'm very pleased with it. My burrowing starfish and snails also enjoy it; easy to "sink" in to and no sharp edges. Creatures that actually try to create burrows will have a challenge...but hey, what else do they have to do? Its pretty enjoyable watching shrimp, gobies and pods do constant home maintenance instead of doing some myself. Cons(?) 1. Any significant flow over or at it WILL move it around. But as long as you’re not limited to pushing high flow low in the tank, then once it's settled it's no problem. I set up the rockwork and use a varying speed pump in one tank to intentionally give some slight sand movement in little pockets and it adds to the look. 2. if you and/or your clean-up-crew are not diligent, built-up detritus will stand out. Not sure this is a con as long as you're good about tank maintenance. 3. The ony "real" con in my book: you dont HAVE to rinse it...but, if not, expect complete cloudiness for a number of days. I do give it a fairly thorough rinse and I still end up with cloudiness for a number of hours. But see below. Suggestion: if you want to be precise where the sand goes and almost eliminate the cloudiness issue, - get a gravel cleaner that is approximately as long as your tank is deep - remove the tubing so you have just the gravel cleaner tube and the cap that attaches to the tubing. Make sure the cap is on tightly. - turn it upside down and let it fill with water so that you're not fighting bouancy - depending on the diameter of the tube you can either scoop the sand directly in to it or use a funnel - the sand will exit slowly through the hole in the cap. Move the tube around and use it like icing a cake. Its a slow process but the sand goes where you want it - the remaining cloudiness will stay in the tube. If you remove the tube right away you'll still get some cloudiness in the tank. Or you can leave the tube in the tank a few hours and most of what is causing the cloudiness will eventualy sink. - Orrrrr...if you're in a position to do so and feeling brave, cover the top of the tube to create a vacuum. Lift the tube, cloudy water and all, out of the tank. Just be sure to have somewhere close by to dispose of cloudy water.

this is a great product at a reasonable price for live sand that you do not have to rinse before you use, settled quickly in the tank, i added more sand to an already established tank and it did turn the water milky but lke i said it settled quickly and my fancy goldfish love playing in it. would recommend to any fish enthusist

I used this sand for a 8g rectangle aquarium mixed with a plant substrate for nutrients. I had to wash it out at least 10x, until the water was cloudy, but not milk colored. However, they have a lot of sand for a good price. The sand is a nice cream color, which looks good and makes the dark gray rocks stand out. The plants are doing well and the betta, Wonder, is also doing good. The first day it was cloudy, but it got better fast and by the third day, the water was crystal clear. I am happy with this sand, and would buy again if I need more for cheap. Thank you Petco!

This stuff was good and exactly as described but for the love of your fish tank and your sanity please rinse this stuff before adding it to your tank. There was no instructions to rinse, " Just open and pour and wait 24 hours" ehh wrong I would've had to wait forever to get my water to clear if I didn't rinse. Rinse it like three times, it is so dang dusty and your filter will probably die trying to filter everything out of the water and it does NOT settle at the bottom.

Works well, nice uniform size

Looks great & good small size grains for saltwater tank, but boy does it need a lot of rinsing. I mustve used over 100 gallons & it still clouded up my tank so bad that i had to water change the next day as it was not settling

Although the product wasn't crushed coral it certainly raises the ph. For reference on how much to use, here is what I did. For starters I washed half of the 15lb bag in a bucket to remove the dust. Next I split it up into 3 parts and filled up 3 screen type filter bags with a zipper. No metal in the bags. Next I put one of the bags on top of a bubble stone on the bottom of the aquarium. The water flow gently raised the ph over a 24 hour period. The ph went from 6.0 to 6.2, I next put in all 3 bags and checked the ph after 8 hours. The ph went up to 6.4. so I withdrew all 3 bags and let the fish get used to it for a day. Now there's one bag in there and the ph is slowly coming up. It's at 6.6 after 24 hours so I'm leaving it like that for now. So it seems 2.5 pounds in a 60 gallon aquarium is about right. Therefore 1.25 pounds in a 30 gallon should be about right. Whatever you do, test the water often and put this stuff in mesh bags so you can easily remove it if the ph is coming up too fast. I assume the ph will not climb as fast as the water becomes more alkaline. However it's still a good idea to monitor it and remove the bags once you've reached your desired ph. I suppose eventually you can figure out how much to leave in the tank to maintain the proper ph. Hope this helps.

I got this sand for an elderly family member that is homebound and just getting into this as a hobby. We sent him 40 pounds of his sand as he has a 55 gallon tank. Small I know, but for his second tank, pretty. he read all the reviews on this product and took to heart. he built a dual tank system with a filtration system system exchanging water between the two tank. After 12 hours, the exhibit tank was crystal clear. After 24 hours, you can't even tell there is water in the tank. Invisible. He asked me to write this review and to let you know this is an awesome product and he highly recommends it.

Added to the aquarium to buffer the ph and boy did it work wonders. Just be careful how much you add, I ended up going from ph4 to 8.5 having only added a few hundred grams to a 300 litre tank.

Absolutely brilliant looking sand my african cichlids love it. Keep in mind this isn't cheap sand from the fish shop we're u wash it once and its clean. u have to wash this over and over and over agein. when u put it in ur tank wait atleast 24 hours for the fog to settel. Other than the cleaning 5 star sand. Recommended.

Quick Review: I have kept cichlids for years and years, and this is always my go-to substrate. It's a nice white color, and the grains are really tiny...like sugar sized. Mimics their natural habitat, and some cichlids actually injest some sand to aid in digestion. It also buffers the PH of the water and keeps it right around 8.2, which is optimal for almost all African cichlids. Note that it needs to be rinsed, rinsed, and rinsed some more. Even then, it will cloud the water somewhat. No matter what you do, it will clear after a few days. It can be a bit costly, so I try to wait for a sale on it. For example, in order to have a 2-inch depth, I need 3 bags for my 75g tank. My fish happily sift through it daily...there's no replacement for crushed aragonite, IMO.

Sand looks good. I needed to rinse it off quite a lot. Rinsed with RO/DI water on final rinse.

Bit too small