CaribSea Arag-Alive Special Grade Reef Sand, 20-Pound

great stuff not cloudy

Arrived in cold weather, so I was worried it wouldn't be active, but I needn't have been concerned. It's a good product for innoculating a new tank with beneficial bacteria. 20 pounds turned out to be a substantial volume, about 14 inches long by 10 inches wide by 2 inches thick. I suppose the volume depends on the type of sand; large loosely packed particles of aragonite, versus small densely packed quartz.

Sand is white and does not blow around/ Even when my fish decide to hollow out a spot in the sand, the sand settles down quickly. I put it over some crushed coral and black agate what little I did not remove.

Special Grade is sized from 1 mm to 2 mm large grains. My wavemaker would blow around the Fiji pink sized sand and reveal bald patches or high ridges. Special Grade allowed me appropriate minimal flow in y tank while not being blown around; it is still small enough to be considered 'sand'. Do not be lulled into thinking you can tolerate lower flow just for your sand's sake. Please do your research regarding appropriate Flow and relationship with choice of substrate. Most sands smaller than this has a niche use, perhaps for a very deep (over 24" deeps at the least) or a softie reef setup. Special Grade allowed me minimum flow for my mixed reef while still aesthetically looking good and meeting my fish and coral's substrate needs. I would not do a deep sand bed with it though. I have an inch and a half to two inches substratem and this does the job well.

Exactly as described

I ordered this sand the other day and was expecting it too look like the sand in the picture. Well it does not, it is a pinkish color not black. It is just regular looking sand that is also pretty large as far as sand goes. Not what I expected.

I'll start by warning right off the bat that the sand you receive is not the sand pictured. We knew that when buying it so no problems there. It's great stuff, though for cycling a new tank. Good luck with shipping though.

Gives my reef aquarium the look I was after, as well as having trace elements I need for the tank to be biologically healthy.