colorquartz

[nzac]

I found some colorquartz "t grade" and am looking for opinions from any that have used this stuff in the past. I want a black substrate for one of my tanks but I have had some bad luck with black gravel and the paint coming off and killing some fish in the past.

I seem to remember some people here that have used colorquartz in their tanks in the past. I am wondering is it a good substrate? does it lose its color like normal gravel does?

[sevenyearnight]

I don't have personal experience with colorquartz, but I did just set up a tank using Black Diamond blasting sand 20/40. It's soft feeling, it looks gorgeous, it wasn't dusty at all, and it was 8.99 for 50 lbs.

[J-P]

I used black fluorite sand by seachem. It is rather $$$ though.

[RTR]

The color quartz substrates are inert materials and the colors do seem quite lasting.

The Fourite substrates from Seachem are intended for planted tanks, as they have high CEC (cation exchange capacity) so can hold mineral ions for easy use by plant root hairs. They are from of the laterite soils formed in tropical rainforests laid down eons ago as geologically old deposits, now mined and hardened but with essentially the same functionality as those laterite soils. Their cost is justified only for long-term planted tanks for me.

There are large differences between inert and high CEC substrates for tank use. Inert substrates can be used for planted tanks or unplanted tanks. High CEC substrates are only justified for planted tanks.

HTH

[nzac]

thought about the flourite, I use it in a couple of my planted tanks but for a 125 gallon tank with 1 fish and little to no plants the price tag just seems nuts to me.

[sevenyearnight]

If you're interested, here is a photo of the Black Diamond sand without water:

And here it is planted with water in it, as you can see, it didn't cloud the water at all:

[RTR]

I would not use the Seachem substrates in any giant puffer tank. Those are not ever intended as lushly landscaped/aquascaped planted tanks. Mine have had only a few subnerse Crinums for shading. The Crinums do not need special care or supplements in those setups for me. You just have to remove some offsets periodically to preserve swimming space.

[nzac]

I would not use the Seachem substrates in any giant puffer tank.

this tank is acutally for a rhombeus, the fahaka is only 2" and will be going into a 75 once his IP treatment is over next week until I get his tank and set it up within a few months.

[nzac]

I ordered the colorquartz today, I just can't use sandblasing media for one of my fish tanks.

If anyone cares the "s" grade is like sugarsand, very fine, I ordered the "t" grade it's more like the size of cat littler.