20 replies to this topic

[FrontyKwal]

Just wondering if anyone has used or know anyone who has used this particular substrate before ? Looking for information like if it clouds water alot everytime I give the tank a clean, maintains high ph like it says and what ph it keeps it at and how it looks in a tank

http://www.aquariump...g...6&catID=107

Cheers

[Westie]

Expensive way to fill the tank with substrate. I went to a sponsor of this forum and he talked me out of buying this stuff, and going for crushed coral substrate instead. It's a nice colour the substrate u r looking at, but work out how many bags u need to see if its worth the expense

[FrontyKwal]

thanks for your reply, did he talk you out of it because of its price or because the product itself isnt very good ? i just really want black sand substrate but iv been finding it very hard to find in perth, benefit of buying it from this site aswell is its $7.50 shipping no matter the weight, if i were to buy about 30 kgs of black sand online from somewhere else you can imagine how crazy the shipping cost would be

im looking at buying 3 bags ($135). the price does seem pretty crazy for sand but like everyone else out there you gotta do what you gotta do to make you satisfied with your hobby

[Westie]

Nah he didn't say the product is bad, quite the opposite. He just worked out the price to fill a 6x2x2 and my facial expression pretty much said "call an ambulance" I agree with you that dark substrate looks better. For planted tanks I always go with a dark substrate. I wanted to go dark for my display tank but the cost was just too much. I got 2 big bags of crushed coral instead, cost me under $100 from memory and thats a lot of substrate too. If you can afford it, try the substrate out and see how you go mate.

[FrontyKwal]

hahaha 'call an ambulance' thats classic. yeah this is also for my display tank, a few months ago i bought a solid jarrah cabinet and hood with 6x1.5x1 tank so i want everything to look perfect with this tank. i just used a substrate calculator and i needed alot more than i thought, said i needed 51 kgs to make it 2 inches high :|

[Bowdy]

have you thought about doing a mix so 2/3 lime/coral sand 1/3 black it looks really nice and its cheaper.

[FrontyKwal]

i havnt really thought about that, that could be a better idea. do you know anywhere i could see it in a photo just to see how it would look ?

[FrontyKwal]

hey guys i ended up buying 36 kg (4 bags) of the caribsea tahitian moon black sand. luckily i spoke to someone who works at aoa and he told me the substrate i was originally after was 90 - 95 % black and the rest was white speckles which was definitly not what i was after so that saved me alot of hassle having to send a heavy box of sand back for a refund. should receive my new sand within the next week might do a journal as i start to redo everything in this tank, have spent a couple thousand trying to get everything the way i like it cos im picky haha

[Westie]

probably would have been Ben you spoke to, helpful guy. Good that he told you that before you bought it. Thats a reason why i prefer to buy local. def do a journal, share the pics man. chop chop

[asiobob]

Okay, so I bought 4 bags of the Caribsea Cichlid substrate (zac black) from AoA a few months ago
With 36kg I was able to cover a 3ft by 14in tank; and my 6ft by 1.8in tank. It isn't a super think layer but more than enough for my mbuna.

Time for a video: you can see the substrate here, this is my 6 foot


The good
+ It's basically pre-washed, no extra washing required
+ It buffers pH to the typical requirements of African cichlids (my tank was in the low 8's after a week)
+ it's black, although mine has speckles of white stand, but this is minimal

The gimmicks
+ it comes with a tiny packet of flocculant so that the water is made clearer quicker
+ it comes vac sealed and drenched with "live bacteria" that makes cycling faster. I have no idea if it helped my cycling or not.

The bad
+ the cost, but for me it was a one time (or once in a very long time) purchase and whilst it's relatively expensive, it wasn't Aston martin expensive.
+ the main substrate is large enough to be called gravel but there's enough sand size particles that gives my siphon and electric vac the shits.

Edited by asiobob, 27 July 2012 - 08:59 PM.

[FrontyKwal]

Looks mint asiobob ! Damn I wish I saw this video about 3 weeks ago, I was thinking there would be more white showing when its in the tank but looks very nice and so do your fish, Im glad I stuck with a black substrate it really brings out the colour in cichlids. I agree the price is abit 'out there' as mine was just a bit cheaper than what you payed but I am hoping it will be worth it, copped alot of sh!t from my mates when I told them I spent $160 on sand but they will never know how satisfied I get from haveing a nice looking tank haha

Can I ask how long did your sand take to arrive from aoa ? Iv been waiting 18 days for mine (counting down everyday) as I am very eager to start doing up my tank. Iv order heaps of items from aoa before and it has never taken no where near this long to arrive

[asiobob]

my order of the 4 bags and another huge box of misc stuff (heaters, nets, test kit etc) took about two weeks. I'd give them a call next week as they should have the tracking number...
edit: I think the sand you got has more white than mine has, and it would be more sandy as well. none the less it would look awesome with your tank/furniture mix.

Edited by asiobob, 27 July 2012 - 09:04 PM.

[FrontyKwal]

I also ordered 4 bags, I got the caribsea tahitian moon black sand. I also got a load of stuff aswell as the sand in that order, only thing I can think of thats taking this long is the box it comes in might be very very big and heavy ? If its not here on monday I will give them a call, I hate being 'that person' that rings up curious and complaning haha but I am so desperate to get everything in my tank sorted so Im ready to buy my new variety of fish, sold all of my fish except for my 4 clown loaches so my tank and been empty for a while and its sad looking at it like that haha

[Bowdy]

The tank looks good mate well done.

The gimmicks
+ it comes vac sealed and drenched with "live bacteria" that makes cycling faster. I have no idea if it helped my cycling or not.

Can someone clear this up Surelly the bacteria can't still be alive so how can it aid in tank cycling ?

[Craig]

Perhaps it has a product similar to Seachem Stability?

[asiobob]

Here are the claims: http://www.caribsea...._ecocichlid.htm

It has water conditioner...
The substrate is marketed to those that are time constrained (or perhaps in a rush). I suspect that since this product increases pH (typically a desired outcome for African cichlods) it increases the toxicity of any ammonia and so for the uninitiated this will accelerate the new tank syndrome of dead fish. To counter this they pack the substrate in water conditioner which at least for a few days will detoxify ammonia (and perhaps nitrites too). Of course if you had to wash this first then you loose the water conditioner as its not in a bottle - hence they do the washing before the packing. The water does get a smudge cloudy and for those time constrained buyers a small packet of flocc fixes that.

It claims to cut cycling from weeks to days....
It claims to have live bacteria that cuts cycling from weeks to days. First I think Craig is right, it must use a product similar to SeaChem stability (not live activated bacteria, rather "spores" that activate in your tank - I don't know enough to comment). http://www.seachem.c.../Stability.html is how stability works, perhaps CaribSea have something similar.

I complete a fishless cycle with this substrate and I recall my ammonia levels being at 5ppm for about a couple of weeks before they dropped.

I must admit, I didn't think about the above when I bought it. I bought it because it was black and buffered pH to an extent.

[asiobob]

only thing I can think of thats taking this long is the box it comes in might be very very big and heavy ?

Actually it is not big as it is vacuum packed in a thick, tightly sealed bag. The substrate has no free space and is effectively compacted. You realise this further when you open the bag and it expands as the air makes its way in.
To give you an indication, the box was the size of a pillow, perhaps not as tick, each box had 2 bags and lots of bubble wrap. Handle it with care as if the bag cops a leak, the liquid inside will come out (messy) and the bag will expand.

[FrontyKwal]

Yep spot on asiobob they came packaged like you said I received them yesterday. Do you think I should rinse it before I put it in my tank ? It says to just dump it in the tank because its got water conditioners and all that jazz in it to speed up tank cycles but I dont ned to cycle my tank as I will putting the same water back in the tank

[Westie]

dont rinse it, just put it in

[FrontyKwal]

Alright I shall be doing that tomorrow hopefully, might start up a journal now just of how the tank looks at the moment and add some photos later on down the track