Loaches Online Forum

hi! this is Laura, Greg's fiance. I was doing some research on the pool sand you guy's had mentioned (quartz pool sand from Leslie's pool supply) and I came across a new interesting type of substrate. It's called Color Quartz and it comes in a variety of colors. It's made of quartz and covered in ceramic. I read a lot of posts about it and have found out that it is said to be totally inert, doesn't affect any chemical composition of the tank, very easy to clean, a little heavier than regular sand, so it settles more quickly and looks just like sand. It's actually made for plastering pools, floor, and roofs, but it is said to work great in aquariums by those who have already tried it. They compare it to Tahitian moon sand saying that it's just as great for half the price.

Anyways, after extensive reading, Greg and I were considering switching to this stuff. It looks very cool and comes in two different grains: s- which is fine like sand and is said to be like ball bearings, and t- which is more coarse and said to be angular,irregular shapes. The site I read all this info on was a cichlid site, so most of them preferred the t grain for there fish, however a surprising number liked the finer version more.
Also, many of them found several places you could buy it, and a few different companies in which you could buy it from. Such being 3m, hoverTrowel, Dura-flex, or PyramidCement; all of which is said to be the same thing.
Different sites/companies that are selling it:
http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/e ... /Crystals/
http://www.hovertrowel.com/aggregates.html
http://www.dur-a-flex.com/our_products/ ... spx?sid=14
http://www.pyramidcement.com/pages/pool ... uartz.html

The Cichlid forum discussion in which I found all this information at is:
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/view ... c&&start=0
On that site someone posted a link to a page that has the color quartz product data sheet:
http://multimedia.mmm.com/mws/mediawebs ... Y_zVooooN-
So after much reading, we think that this is a good option. The colors are also very nice too. Greg wants to do as one person did where they mixed the red with black, using lava rocks and made it look like mars. I think that'd be pretty neat, but I'd prefer a more natural look. However I don't think I'm going to win on this one.
There were also some cases where people got 3m to send them color samples in vials and they got to mix and match and get the perfect color for them for their lighting. Others weren't as lucky and only got a plastic sheet in the mail with the photos of the colors. Perhaps it's all in who you speak to.
Anyways, we're very interested in what you guys think about this stuff. Whether you think it's a good plan or not.
Can't wait to hear back from you!
~Laura

Hi Laura!
I have not used this stuff myself, and heard from only one person who did use it. That one experience was negative: the fish poop stuck to it so cleaning was harder. He ended up removing it from his tank.
Good luck with it!

I've tried similiar ceramic coated sands and I don't think loaches care for them.

A natural thing that loaches will do with most sands is they'll sift though it for food. They'll suck the sand in through their mouths and blow it out through their gills. When I had the ceramic coated sand I never saw them do this, but they'll do this regularly with the pool filter sand I use.

This is another reason why it is important that the sand is kept clean.
The best way to keep the sand clean is to have lots of water flow running across the the bottom of the tank, where the current is just barely skimming the sand. This usually requires adding powerheads.

You'll have to comprimise somewhere because the Angelfish you have won't like lots of current. You might want to set-up some species tanks in the future to suit the needs of the kinds of the fish you keep.

point made. I am convinced. white pool sand it it.

however... would there be any reall problems with just having a plain glass bottom?

you are right about the angel fish, he norally chils out around the siphon box in a corner where there isnt much water flow...

I do have another tank I coould out him in,.. im just not very responsible.. and have found that I can do allot better watching just one tank, than multiple..

(sorry about laura, lol, she sounded like and advertisement)


EDIT
(ok, new battle plan, going to take out the gold barbs, and the tetras and the angel fish, and put them in a 20 gallon ecplipse tank I have

this should ease up the over stocking... as well as get the angel fish out of the way so i can blast the hell out of the sand...

im thinking sand in the angel fish tank... anyhting wrogn with that?

Pool Filter sand isn't white, it's almond.

Hi Laura,

I just spent time swutching to garnet sand. It´s also used in waterfilter-industry and sometimes in watercutting or sandblasting. Make sure it´s NOT broken sand, so the individual seeds are round and not sharp. I decided for a very fine one (which I´m not sure yet wether it was smart to do so...) but it can be sifted through gills it may be miore suitable for loaches, it may be locking outr water from the plant-roots too much - time will tell. But I could not resist the cool color...

Pic´s i´ve posted in keith recent thread ("my fishroom update") page 2.

It´s double as heavy as normal sand, but the filter still sucks some in, as I´ve plenty of bottom dwellers.
It´s a semi-precious stone, so 100% natural. If you pick seed-size 1mm you almost have juwlery in your tank

Re the ceramic, never heard around here about it, I´ve plastic covered black gravel, which worked fine (lost a bit color though). Make sure it´s not too sharp on the corners...

yeah, well, after talking with laura, we decided to just go with the regualr inert quartz sand to be safe. I liked how it felt and all, and hte loaches seem to like it allot

(luara is going to buy me 2 5inch fire eels for my tank... i cant wait)

I am also going to be getting a few more moss balls to roll around in my tank eating nitrate.

I did more and more water changes.. but im still at, 30 ppm nitrate.. -.-

i bought more of the nitrate removing pureigen stuff, hopefuly that wil work. . .

Around here pool filter sand is off white with dark specks. Looks pretty nice, though I would prefer darker.
I get 30 mesh sand and it does not compact or create anaerobic spots as long as there is reasonable water movement in the tank. A powerhead near the bottom would be very helpful if the primary filter is not enough, and the fish that like such water movement would be very happy with more movement.

Interesting, 3m ColorQuartz has been mentioned a few times here, I know I have mentioned it personally many times and a couple folks here have used it. No one ever said anything bad about it till now. I was dead set on black S grade, but there was no local distributer. I was even going to drive to cleveland to get it (closest distributer), but they werent open on the weekends. Ended up just getting pool filter sand. It turned my water very orange though since I didnt rinse it (the amount I was dealing with was more than I was prepared to rinse manually) so I just ran a diatom filter for a few days and that took care of that.