Is Turface lighter than Play Sand?

abcdefghi

abcdefghi

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Jun 6, 2007
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I am moving my tanks in about a week or two, and in the process want to switch my play sand substrate to something heavier. I had looked at Eco-Complete, but to be honest, I do not want to spend $100 on substrate.

So, I come to Turface, but I keep reading that it is light. How light? is it lighter than play sand? my biggest problem with the play sand is the amount of it that gets kicked up by my cory cats and ultimately ends up in the filter. Could I do a 50/50 mix of Turface and gravel?

Is Schultz Aquatic Soil similar to Turface? I want something heavy enough not to get thrown all over the place, smooth so as not to bother the corys, and good for plants, all without spending a ton of money.

Thanks.
 
I've never used play sand, but I have a mixture of pool filter sand, eco-complete, and some Turface I received for free in my main tank....the first two mix well, but the Turface is lighter than both and always ends up on top no matter how much I tried to stir it in. I think it would still work it's way up if mixed with gravel. But the particles are large enough my water stays clear even when my khulis are being very vigorous getting to the sand beneath and sink back down quickly, and their barbels are all still very healthy after a few months of use.

*Edit* I forgot to mention, it's a hassle to rinse. I never could get mine to rinse completely clean, it just hit an equilibrium where the water was consistently less dirty than when I started but never got any cleaner...I think the friction of cleaning causes it to create more dust as it gets swooshed around. Even so, it didn't cloud up my tank for longer than an hour or two, and I've never had a dust issue since.
 
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I just used Turface only in my 55 and 15. I got the charcoal color which is a light grey color. Weight wise it is able to be sucked up in a siphon very easy. I would also agree that it would settle to the top if mixed with gravel. I only used about a half a bag for both tanks. I do not know what to do i with the rest!
 
I think I may just end up getting a bag of pea gravel from Lowes and mixing it with a bag of Fluorite or Eco Complete and be done with it!
 
maybe go to home depot/lowe's and check out the medium-grade commercial sand they have there (quikrete or maybe sakrete brand in home depot, not sure what lowe's carries). each shipment of sand is different from the next, but you may be able to score with a nice heavy larger-grain sand. i've gotten some that is very white and able to clean it with a python, another time i went and the sand was much finer and copper-colored. i like the heavy white sand so much i think it would be worth a trip to see what's in stock right now.
 
wataugachicken said:
maybe go to home depot/lowe's and check out the medium-grade commercial sand they have there (quikrete or maybe sakrete brand in home depot, not sure what lowe's carries). each shipment of sand is different from the next, but you may be able to score with a nice heavy larger-grain sand. i've gotten some that is very white and able to clean it with a python, another time i went and the sand was much finer and copper-colored. i like the heavy white sand so much i think it would be worth a trip to see what's in stock right now.
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I will probably take a look in Lowes this weekend, they have quikrete there, I have never looked at it as I was not sure I could use it in an aquarium.

They have the play sand that I currently have there, so it should be easy enough to compare between the two different types.
 
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