sand/coarse gravel

[aquak]

How much rinsing did you have to do with the tahitian moon sand?

 

[BK]

a seller told he doesn't like it, to sharp angular. he didn't go into a great deal of specifics on how this negativley affected his fish but he uses that smaller gained black sand(from estes it think) because of it.

 

[SnakeIce]

the angular sharp sand might limit how vigorously the cories/loaches dig but they are smart enough to only use the force that will not injure themselves. but a manufactured sand that is made out of a glass like substance could have edges that would be unnaturally unworn down.



I think poor water quality is a much bigger factor in eroding the barbules than any abrasion would, they might actually injure themselves on the gravel but the effect of the less than pristine water is what deturmines weather it heals the minor scratch or is eroded back.

 

[Copper]

How much rinsing did you have to do with the tahitian moon sand?

It didn't require an awful lot of rinsing, but it took me a while to get through the 20lb bag because I was doing it in small batches.

 

[MikefromNH]

I've never heard of black sand at home depot, but I've found the white Southdown playsand that reefers always rave about in Home Depots in Philadelphia. As for the natural gravel, I've seen that in HDs all over the northeast (PA, RI and MA).

As far as which is best for bottom dwellers, I don't think it's really too important. I personally like sand better. Food sits on the surface instead of getting lost beneath the gravel. My loaches and catfish also seem to have an easier time rooting around in the sand. The one thing you have to watch out for is that the sand grains are smooth and rounded. I've heard of loaches damaging their barbles on sharp sand grains. I'm not positive, but I seem to recall hearing that tahitian moon sand has pretty sharp grains.

HTH

I have Tahitian Moon sand and I'm pretty sure the barbles on my shark catfish are definately taking a beating caused by the sand. The sand grains felt very sharp when I was doing the initial rinsing.

Who knows, maybe something else is causing the barble damage. I'm 99.9% sure when I bought the cats a month ago the barbs were perfect and no other fish bothers them. My guess is it's the TM sand.