Caribsea Super Naturals Aquarium Sand, 20-Pound, Crystal River

I just got back into having fish and decided to go with all live plants, which I've never done before. 10 weeks in and I have four tanks going. I used this sand in my 30gallon and put it into a 6.5gal upgraded betta tank today. It is beautiful and I'm thrilled with my purchase!Pros:1. Very fine for sensitive bottom dwellers like Cory Cats. Mine play and frolic constantly, leaving happy little trails all over the tank. They love it! My mystery snails and Malaysian trumpets love it too!2. Plants love it! My plants are going crazy in this tank and taking longer to get going in the tanks with Eco Complete and Tahitian Moonlight (also beautiful, btw). I rearranged a few plants today and they had roots 6 inches long after about 8 weeks in the tank. The soft sand makes it easy to place plants without damaging them.3. The light color is really pretty and makes it easy to spot various critters. It's kind of beachy in a way and a great contrast to my tank with the black Tahitian Moonlight sand in it.Cons:1. Somewhat tricky to clean. Take my advice, which I got from someone else, and buy a mini gravel vacuum. It is perfect to stir up the sand to clean without sucking it all up and out of the tank.2. Not really a con but some more advice: WASH IT FIRST!!! I did this by pouring the bag into a big 5 gallon bucket I got on the cheap from Walmart. Get a stool (it takes a while) and take the bucket to your outside hose. Use the strongest, most focused nozzle you have. Have a seat and shoot the water with force down into the sand. Use the water to churn it up. You'll be shocked at the fine particles that come out! Carefully pour the water out (don't worry... the sand will stay in the bucket) and then do it again. Rinse until the water runs clear. Trust me. You'll thank me later!You really can't go wrong buying this sand!

The media could not be loaded. Let me start by saying I have a lot of tanks with a lot of different substrates. I breed corydoras catfish and was looking to get away from bare bottom tanks. I was looking for a substrate that they could filter through and display their natural behaviors.I did a lot of research and there were a lot of recommendations for this sand. But when I looked it up there were a lot of complaints of cloudy water after introducing the sand. In my past experiences I know you have to rinse sand completely before you add it to the tank.I purchased 2 20 pound bags and was pleasantly surprised when they were delivered and each bag was in its own individual box. The boxes protected the bags very well, both my bags were intact. I got one of my 2 gallon buckets and put roughly 1/4 of a bags sand in it and went outside and rinsed it with a garden hose very very thoroughly. This is very time consuming but it will save you heartache in the end. I rinsed it until the water ran clear before adding it into my tank.The video above was filmed 1 hour after I added the sand to my tank. The cloudiness in my tank was minimal, because I rinsed it so well. Hope this helps those who are on the shelf because of the negative reviews for cloudy water. If you put in the time rinsing, you won’t have a problem.

I bought the Torpedo Beach sand hoping for a pretty white sand and it was. I have to say, I didn't rinse it. I didn't have fish yet and decided just to chance it. The water was a little cloudy that day, and there was a very little bit of trash that floated to the top and was easily scooped out with a net. The water was clear by the next day. My aquarium was so beautiful with this sand! But then the diatoms set in after about a month to two months of having the aquarium up and going. My beautiful sand turned a very dark brown. From lots of research online, it sounds like this is something that either has to resolve on its own or you take your substrate out and wash it on a regular basis. Some people might have time to, but I do not. So I'm looking at trying to get gravel to replace what used to be beautiful white sand.UPDATE: The horrible diatom bloom is starting to die down and the white is coming back. I decided that I'll keep the sand after all. :)I still love the sand and for people with established aquariums this probably won't be a problem. I still love it and maybe will return to it someday after my aquarium is settled in.UPDATE: 9/1/2018I never did get around to switching to gravel. I found that red cherry shrimp adore diatoms. They keep the surface of my sand looking pretty and white. There is still brown along the glass where the shrimp can't get to, but it's not worth disturbing my now planted aquarium. This tank was a cichlid tank for a short time until I moved them into a larger aquarium and the sand stayed pretty decent looking with the yellow labs constantly moving the sand around. But without either the sand being moved constantly or the shrimp cleaning the sand, it starts turning brown very quickly.

This is my first time buying white sand. I usually buy black sand or use eco complete. I thought let me try a different substrate and bought this for it’s high reviews. It didn’t disappoint.Of course I had to clean it up. I cleaned it in 5 batches. The water was milky white for a while so I added the clarifier. Next morning it was still a little cloudy but by day 3, it was clear.One bag of 20lb sand will fill the bottom of a 20g regular tank (24”x16x12). It’s about 2 inches high.The attached photo is my tank in progress. I’m going to make it heavily planted, but you can see the clarity of the sand. Simply great!UPDATE: After a few weeks, it continues to be white-whitish. I do not vacuum the sand floor, but when I rummage through the sand, the whiteness comes up. This is great for plants. I use a DIY Osmocote+ root tab, so the plants grow well.