Sand and Pebbles

Dahlia

Dahlia

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Sep 3, 2003
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I'm considering mixing natural colored sand with natural colored pea-pebble gravel to get a "natural" look to my substrate. To do this I'll probably borrow some sand from the local creek. If I boil it and rinse it extensively, then test to see if it changes water pH, do you think there would be a problem mixing it with my gravel? Is there multi-colored grain natural looking sand I can buy? I just don't want the plain, solid colored sand.

I want to imitate the way the bank looks at the creek in my aquarium.
 
Take this for what it's worth...

I have been using Patio Paver sand in my substrate. It looks great mixed in with natural gravel. It is multi colored, and the grains have a decent variation in size.

There is only one problem with it. It contains a bit of calcium. I have noticed that as the pH in my tank drops to 6.4 - 6.6, the water hardness increases from 3 by about a degree per week. As the hardness increases, the pH rises, and by the time the tank is about 7 degrees hardness, and the pH is 7.0, the hardening of the water slows down significantly.

Obviously this isn't a disaster, since doing water changes with soft water will keep the harndess down. It does however cause you to moniter the hardness a little more closely than most folks do.

Changing substrate is difficult at best, so I am not going to replace mine anytime soon, and you won't either, so choose your substrate carefully. Boiling a lot of sand doesn't sound like much fun though! At least Patio Paver sand just has to be rinsed!

Here is a large picture of the substrate:

www.unifac.com/altorfer/IMG_0281.jpg
 
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I have always really liked the look of the Tex-Blast sand in my tanks... really natural looking. It is multi-colored, but the grains are a little bigger than just plain sand so vacuuming the tank is much easier! Around here, the sand is about $15/ 50# bag at the stores, but some places like pond supply shops or landscape shops sometimes have it cheaper. Recently, I have added a big bag of the natural pebbles from Home depot and then the sand it looks great! One more thing I added and suggest if you are looking at growing real plants is a bag of the Schultz pond gravel from Home Depot as well. I think it was about $7 for a 10# bag and it covered my 75 gallon about a 1/4" over the whole bottom. I just mixed it in with the sand for good maesure. It is 100% natual clay just like the Flourite stuff, but much cheaper! It is a solid rust-red color, so by mixing it with the sand it really added a nice color to the mix.

Good luck,
Bill C.
 
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