Black Soft Sand?

[Whitey_144]

Hi,

I'm about to setup a 2ft tank and replacing my sharp gravel in my 3ft. I'm looking for a dark/black sand which is soft, because I will keep Cories and catfish.

I've had lots of trouble previously with algae, so i'm not fussed if the substrate isn't great for plants, if need be I will use root tabs.

Any suggestions/recommendations for cheap dark sand?

Thanks,
Adam

 

[ColR1948]

Is there a Maidehead aquatics near you, I got some substrate a while ago from them, it was very dark not black but it was like a gritty sand, not sure of the make as I threw the pack away it was in, it is partly washed so I washed it again and it washed great too by the way,

 

[sebn]

Maidenhead aquatics stock unipac (i think) black sand, i have it in my tank and my corys love it. its not cheap though 20 quid for 10kg.

 

[Whitey_144]

Thanks guys, I've looked up Maidenhead and seems there are 2 newish stores near me, woop woop! (well since i last looked few years ago), they are in gatwick/Crawley area so I'm going to try them out tomorrow.

I actually have the Unipac Limpopo sand in my 4ft tank, but was looking for something darker. Also I'm not sure if the Limpopo changes the water slightly, I did a substrate clean for first time in a long time and some dark silt dust did come up, not sure if this was just muck or from the sand still as it was very fine/dust like.

Aquaessentials have this one.. ColR1948 & sebm is this the one you had/have?
http/www.aquaessentials.co.uk/unipac-granite-black-aquarium-sand-125kg-p-4856.html

If maidenhead can do it cheaper, ill get it. Anyone know if Unipac sell this sand available for sale in bigger sizes anywhere? i.e.25kg.

It says 0.2mm -1mm sand, is this ok for cories and catfish? (wasn't sure if it was too fine, it may get stuck in their gills?) I will also move the cories and catfish to my 4ft tank, so is 1mm limpopo perfect for them too?

How deep should the sand be? I think I may have it too deep in my main tank (about 2inches at back half and 1 inch at front). The main planted plants will be vallis, cambomba, but most will be floating or plants like anubias, moss. Im going to try and breed apistos in the 2ft, so I may just lightly cover the glass in that one and keep only non planted plants.

thanks!

 

[Whitey_144]

I've got some Unipac granite black sand now. (not sure if this is different to the Unipac black sand seen on greenmachine?)

So i'm going to setup my 2ft tank tonight. I've read on here that it raises PH/KH a bit. I have another limpopo sand in my 4ft and that fizzed with alcohol, I think the PH in that tank does sometimes creep up. For how long would this occur? I assume it would stop buffering after a year or so?

thanks,
Adam