3M Colorquartz as a plant substrait.

Mgamer20o0 said:

just use some root tabs and it will take care of the nutrient problem.

Click to expand...

:iagree:

Ok. Let me just explain to you my weekend.


I went and picked up a bag of S-Grade Black 3M Color Quartz. After hours and hours of rinsing a black oily film from the material, I put it in my tank when I thought it was clean enough.

After a couple days, you could see at the top of the water what looked like motor oil was poured into my tank. My filters were black, and the bio wheel edges were blackening.

I pulled the stuff completely out, washed the tank, disassembled the filter to clean, and reassembled using a pool filter media (50lb for 15$).

Water looks much, much better.


While a lot of people have had success with 3M color quartz, maybe their bags weren't as oily, or maybe they didn't use black. Personally, I would not use it.

Yeah, you have to clean it REALLY well.
It does turn out nice once you get pass the mess, but I can understand your frustration.
I love the stuff.

the s grade is also a finer grade. the T grade is a larger size. Many have complained about the oily residue and that it takes a very long time to clean it, most are happy afterwards. its cheap enough for som that its worth the elbow grease

This stuff is so fine, any recommendation on the best way to rinse it?
I've picked the worst time to rinse this stuff, since it's been in the 20's for weeks and I'd love to just take a garden hose to this stuff to rinse it!

Takes about 2 hours of rinsing in hot water in the bath tub.

Fill about 3" of sand in the bucket.
Fill with hot water half way.
Make a tiger claw Kung Fu hand.
Put hand in the sand to the bottom of the bucket and twirl the sand with your hand as fast as you can. Think about a tumbler while doing this, twirl the sand in such a way you want it to rub against itself to help scrub away the residue that comes on it from the factory.

Keep doing this until you see no black tint to the water at all, then empty it into a clean bucket. Takes about 15 Min's or more per 3" of sand to clean. You can see how clean the water is by pouring it out and looking at it against the white of the bath tub.

You will not get it 100% clean, so stop trying

Then repeat

Or if you have the money to spend, just get Fluorite black sand.

Wear gloves! or your hand will have a weird black staining for weeks..
Be ready to clean your bath tub after you are done and your buckets will be permanently stained

More info here:
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=167015&highlight=Colorquartz

I used the t grade in my 180 gallon tank and it took me about a half hour to wash each of the 4 bags I bought. There was indeed a oily residue on the top of my water for a week or two, but nothing that hurt any of my fish or inverts. No harm no foul. All it is, is ceramic coated quartz. Both perfectly safe for the aquarium generally.

It did leave a stain on my fingernails for a few days. No biggie.