Aqua Natural Oolitic Aragonite 10lb Aquarium Sand for Reef, Saltwater and Marine Tanks and Aquariums

I am usually a caribsea and Fiji pink guy but came across this substrate at a local store and loved the texture and color of it! Came to Amazon to order a second bag!

I was a bit hesitant to purchase this after some of the negative reviews but I decided to give it a shot. After all I have spent money on more ridiculous things that I regret. I am glad I took the chance though.Delivery was on point, came when it was expected. I had it delivered to my job so it was great that the delivery was made before I clocked out that day and was able to take it home with me.The bag is 10lbs, when I poured it into the bucket to rinse I wondered if it would be enough for a 10 gallon tank, didn't seem like it but it was. It took rinsing under running water for about 10 minutes to get it to the light milky run off. I filled the bucket swished it around and poured it out, then refilled. This was repeated a few times.It looks great in the tank, really pretty, my beta, who is in there somewhere, seems to like it and I love how the light reflects off of it. It took 3 days for the filter to effectively start clearing the water, the pictures show from Saturday through Monday. Still not crystal clear as of yet but getting there (ha my beta just came out of hiding after I took pics, guess they are camera shy, I have a male and female in the tank and they get along fine). Anyhoo, I am glad that I made this purchase and will be buying another to redecorate my other 10 gallon tank.

We purchased 2 bags for our 30 gallon tank . Unfortunately my husband didn’t read the instructions stating that it needs to be rinsed and just added to the tank and added water. The first photo is about 2hrs later . It was very cloudy and you couldn’t even see anything. I ended up rinsing the filters several times that day. The second photo is from 4 days later . Water is pristine and clear and our fish love it . We did add the fish about 6hrs after the sand started to settle and they didn’t mind the cloudy water. Overall great sand for aquarium.

This sand is beautiful and so soft and white. Very uniform in size and there are no rock or shell pieces to pile up and drive me crazy. The only negative is that it is incredibly dirty. I was shocked at how much rinsing I have had to do, and the water still doesn’t run completely clear.EDIT: After about 18 months of use, I just spent all day pulling it from my tank. It is beautiful, but I was constantly having to baster it off the rocks and corals. it is just too fine to stay put.

Yes you do have to rinse like it says, I made a mistake and used the Stratum black clay for my tank. It says for shrimp but it’s really for low loving oh shrimp, caridina . I have red cherry shrimp. Told to use that for my plants and shrimp. I could never get the ph to stay around 7 with that substrate. So I put this white Aragonite substrate in a bucket and kept rinsing till clear. It’s easier to do smaller amounts at a time, than large otherwise you will be rinsing it for ever. (I have also had some extra which I dry out and out in a bag to put so all amounts in if the substrate is covered and needs a boost.)Then started putting it little by little in to cover the black. Had to be sure I didn’t bury my shrimp. After this I have not done a water change in months. Now I see some debris starting to cover the aragonite so may just add some more. Apparently shrimp don’t like big water change parameters when you change the tank water. Which appeared true as I kept losing some. I test my nitrate/ ammonia is always negative. I just clean the sponge filter and filter itself when flowing is decreased. I clean it in dechlorinated water so not to kill any good bacteria etc. I have a billion seed shrimp as well, annoying as they are they are clean up crew.So can’t say enough about this substrate if you want ph of 7 and above. The acid that build up is counter acted with the coral substrate. I have probably 80-100 shrimp, started with 20. I started last fall. You can see from the photo, the stratum at the bottom, then the fluorite with debris building up on top. You can see some fluorite to the right still. The stratum is exceptional for plants as it is like dirt, I now just put it at the bottom of my tanks substrate than cover with Argonite, but will always have fluorite on top now. I never thought I would find a way to make my tank stable. I also removed my big apple snails 🐌 they make a lot of waste and are like bulldozers with my plants. But I still had ph problems after removing them till the fluorite, which is a ph maintainer due to it being a coral (calcium) calcium is used up to buffer acid as needed. Just rinse as there is always little bits of wood and lots of dust. If you don’t do this than just let your filter do the clean up but be prepared every time the substrate is stirred up it may release dust and you won’t be able to set up the tank for a while.Otherwise if you keep cardinia shrimp this is the way to go, if you keep Neocaridina lower oh loving shrimp than keep the stratum as your substrate.

This sand is great for drying plant without damaging their leaves and petals because the particles are round instead of sharp crystals like in regular sand. The particles are little round and oval shapes. I loved experiencing a piece of the Carribean as I sifted my hands through it, since I can't go to the Carribean. I received it on time in one day, I have plants drying in it already, for electroforming projects. I really appreciate it's quality and the fast shipping. I just ordered another bag today.

The sand is a beautiful white pearly hue. Because of its fine nature it required plenty of cleaning but that is expected. The grain size is perfect for sand dwellers which constantly dig themselves and emerge without struggle from the sand bed. One very important plus I noticed was that my seeded copepod population quickly found a home within the sand bed aside from my rock. Poop is obviously noticeable in the sand but, thats poop. You either see it, or you smell it (I'd rather see it). My snails are very happy. The 10lb bag was more than enough for my 6 gallon shallow reef tank. I'm very happy.