The Puffer Forum

Got rid of my cichlids finally today so onto the next phase, which is ordering in new sand. I was looking online for some and saw on a few sites there are "fresh water sands" like unipac's quartz sand but also marine/reef sands like Caribsea Fiji Pink Reef Sand or Caribsea Seaflor Special Grade Sand, which as I understand it, is argonite? Since i'll only be low end brackish with figure eight puffer, does it matter greatly which I go for?

Aragonite (not live) is what you want.

Went to a fish store about 20minutes away today and asked if they stocked aragonite sand as I wanted some to re scape my tank ready for a figure eight, to which they asked why I wanted aragonite, I replied "I was advised to use it" and that I assumed it was for its buffering cababilities. After telling them this they showed me this




Since I asked for aragonite sand I just assumed what they were showing me was aragonite. Only after getting home and reading the label did I discover there is no mention of aragonite on it.
Will this stuff do?
Is it aragonite and just not labeled as such?
Should I attempt to return it? (I say attempt as I misplaced the recipe)

Why didn't they just sell you Aragonite sand?!? Strange...

That looks more like crushed coral to me which you can use to raise & buffer ph.

I bought Aragonite sand for my Figure 8 tank, Classica were the brand and I got off eBay - I would return this and order some online, it's not that expensive either

I'll call tomorrow and see if they will refund given the lack of receipt and order some of that classica, just found it on ebay, out of interest, which grain size did you go for, the 1mm 3mm or 5mm?
How thick did you make your bed?
Does it compact down?

I got my Aragonite Sand at PetSmart.


http://www.petsmart.com/fish/gravel-san ... %3Dfaceted

From my limited experience using both coral sand and aragonite, I must say that aragonite seems to have a far better buffering capacity than does coral sand. I also fell trap to the LFS and got coral sand as a substrate. Now I still use the same (crushed coral) substrate, but with a mesh bag filled with aragonite in my canister filter. This has allowed me to get my kH to the highest it seems I can get, from an original 4 dkH (with only crushed coral) to a stable 6 dkH, and pH of 8.1-8.2.
If you suffer from soft tap water like I do, then I definitely advise you to use a 100% aragonite substrate.

CC substrate is known for trapping detritus in it's which can cause water parameter issues.

I went for 1mm at a depth of 1".

Yes it compacts down fine, you need to rinse it through a lot though otherwise it'll cloud your water - I also believe it gradually dissolves over time (albeit very slowly) so you'll need to add more over time.

I'm happy with it, it's a nice attractive substrate.

I thought you didn't want sand to compact as it can create anaerobic(sp) gas pockets. Then again I think that only applies to sand over 2inch thick :S

1" is good.

No gas pockets in mine!

I have a deep Sand bed. In reef terms is relatively young about a year and a half old. I just stir about a quater of the sand before each wc.

How deep? DSBs are not to be disturbed.

2in" at the lowest 3 or 4 at some peaks. Not sure if that classifies in the dsb