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

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.

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.

Ok, so I had to rinse the sand quite a bit to get rid of the cloudiness but once it ran (mostly) clear I mixed the sand in with my old sand. It looks great!My water Ph was so low due to a old huge driftwood I had in the tank but I also had waaaay too many fish (my plecos had babies) and so all the nutrients were severely depleted. I read that aragonite sand -which is Smooth and round- so it won't hurt my vacuum fish (Corydoras catfish) would help bring back necessary minerals and stabilize the Ph.Well, it did work! My fish are back to being happy and no longer look sick. However, be careful how much aragonite sand you mix in (for freshwater tanks) as it does spike you Ph! Too high ph or too low ph is bad for some fish.I mixed about 5lbs of aragonite sand in my 20gallon tank. And it seemed to be a good balance. But I did have to clean my filter after a couple of days since the sand still leached the minerals in the tank causing it to look cloudy for a few days.But now they are happy and I'm no longer stressing out.I definitely recommend aragonite sand if your tank is suffering from "old tank syndrome" like mine was.

Product looks good. I realize after I bought it that it was the wrong type of sand for my aquarium so I did return it. I'm giving it four stars because it did have a hole in the package when it showed up so there was sand inside the box and it got on my ground a little bit when I picked up the package before I notice.

I use this for my African Sideneck turtle. I adopted her from someone who was moving and couldn't keep her. She had lived for 10 years in a tank with nothing on the bottom!! She loves this sand. And i love how clean it helps keep her tank.

My original intent was to get Natures ocean live sand as its best for reef tanks but i couldn't wait, This also offered next day shipping. It's been great. I see many comments about it making water cloudy but not in my case. Just make sure to place sand in tank first.Pour small amounts onto rocks or something to not move the water too much, until probably halfway where you can speed up a bit. Beautiful light color.

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!