This product is excellent, and good for plants that root in the substrate. The packaging was satisfactory, and once finished cleaning it, it looks amazing.
Beware, though the product directions are very misleading. My tank was a cloudy mess after adding this, and a quick google search of this product showed me my folly. This is by the far the dustiest of sand substrates out there for aquariums.
I took the advice of said website, I put my entire bag in a pillowcase, ran the hose through it for about 30 minutes until the water was clear, and now it looks great.
If you live in a small apartment or don't have access to a workspace, beware this can get messy, id select a different substrate.
BEWARE -The directions to not directly tell you wash it! It says something along the lines of... you "may" wash it, but don't need to, and that you may experience cloudiness that will go away in 2 -12 hours.
Well, I rinsed it in a bucket before putting it in my tank figured a little rinse should be enough IT WASN'T!!
If you buy this, RINSE IT OUT VERY VERY WELL or your water will be CLOUDY FOR DAYS, IF NOT WEEKS!
I will probably never use this stuff again... I have also used Eco-Complete and highly prefer it over Seachem's product.
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As with any flourite product, these are dusty. You can do anything from washing them in a bucket (really just filling and refilling the bucket until no cloud appears) or putting the sand into an old pillow case and spraying it with a house until none of it 'leaks'. The manufacturer claims that you don't need to wash their products, but I've only found this to be the case when burying the product under another substrate.
This stuff is great in the aquarium. It feels like black sand, but has all the benefits of a flourite substrate. My plants are vibrant and healthy. I also dose root-tab fertilization into the flourite. I haven't had any algae outbreaks (which happens if the substrate doesn't retain the fertilizers).
The sand looks really great and is far better than 'regular' sand for plants. I plan to use it all my new tanks.
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I've only had this in my tank for a few days so I can't vouch for its effect on my plants. But it looks really nice. :)
After reading about how to keep the cloudiness to a minimum I decided not to rinse the substrate. Instead, I put it straight into the aquarium, planted, then filled the tank VERY slowly, through an airline tube until about halfway up, making sure the water flowed ONLY onto a small plate. After about halfway I poured the water slowly from a cup onto the plate. By the time the tank was filled there was virtually NO cloudiness and a few days later the tank is crystal clear.
It was kind of anti-climactic, actually, after hearing so much about how cloudy this would be. I was prepared for the tank to look like utter crap for over a week but that just wasn't my experience at all.
Now, this was only a 6.6 gallon Petco bookshelf aquarium and I only used less than 1/3 of the bag. Maybe this is a bigger problem with bigger tanks with larger filters that create more turbulance? Maybe it's difficult to keep up the painstakingly slow pace of filling needed to prevent the cloudiness in big tanks? If anybody knows I'd be thrilled to hear about it. Please comment if you do. :)
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This stuff is fantastic!
I ordered this sand recently to redo the substrate in my 40g breeder. After rinsing each bag for about 5 minutes through a pillow case as was recommended by other reviewers, I dumped 3 bags into a 5 gallon bucket and let it sit for about an hour. I then used a homemade funnel for sand application in a full tank(2 foot long piece of 2" diameter PVC piping with a 2"-4" coupler on top to give it a nice sized opening). By using this funnel after properly rinsing the sand, it allows you to add the sand with very minimal clouding. (Sidenote: TURN OFF YOUR FILTER WHEN YOU ADD THE SAND AND LEAVE IT OFF FOR AT LEAST AN HOUR AFTER ADDING THE SAND!!!!!)
My tank was clear again within 8-10 hours (went to bed and was crystal clear water when I woke up) and all of my fish were still looking very happy. Plants are doing much better in this substrate and my eels no longer knock them out of the ground when they go burrowing and it is bringing out colors in my fish I never knew they had. This is expensive sand but worth every penny!
P.S. After calling SeaChem, they assured me that this Flourite Black Sand is both burrower safe and soft belly safe which was a big concern for me and I know it will be for many others out there. So far this seems to be holding true and my eels and kuhli loaches are loving digging around in it.
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This aquarium heater has been in place and working for several months. I have been very happy with its performance to date. It gives me confidence in lowering my houses heat seating during the day while at work in the winter months. It would be nice if it had some feed back on the actual water temp, a digital read out or something. It currently has two lights, a green one to indicate it is working, and a red one that indicates when the heat element is actually on. I like this type heater especially though for its greater resistance to breaking as opposed to the glass tube models.
