Hey FNZAS, just looking for a sandy substrate for my next tank. Colour i haven't thought too much about, but the nice generic sand colour would be ideal. But then again, something dark wouldn't be disliked either. End of the day, i'm looking for a fine substrate. And would love to hear suggestions along with pricings and ways to acquire it, cheers.

(Really general question i know.)

playsand is light brown - mitre 10

silica sand is white - mitre 10

flourite sand is black - pet shop; expensive

wanganui sand is black - free, but in wanganui.

exoterra sand is either black, yellow, white or red / brick - expensive but available from a pet shop etc.

erm.. beach sand is sandy in colour and free. different beaches have different colours of sand, but most sand will tend to keep the water at a slightly high pH.

"fine sand" mitre 10 More yellow than play sand.

I've got white silica sand sprinkled with some fine dark reddish gravel, which I think gives a nice effect that you can see here: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=50055&start=45

Under it I've got soil substrate and pea gravel since sand is pretty hopeless for planting on its own.

wanganui sand is black - free, but in wanganui.

Black sand is all the way up the west coast of the north island from ~wanganui to ~kaipra, getting lighter (more silica/rock) the further away from the taranaki bight.

Can look good:

How big is the tank you want to use it in Ethan, I have some left over that you can have. About half a bag of the fine sand from Mitre 10 and around the same of builders mix from Bunnings.

I though the South Hort propagating sand in this tank looked pretty nice viewtopic.php?f=4&t=48411

What Kinbote linked is really nice, it's similar to what Jennifer has in her Birthday tank post: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=46595

While i'm redoing a substrate change, would it be beneficial to put anything underneath the gravel that can open up future options? There is some Daltons Aquatic Mix unopened in the garage, i also read the CO2 Post, and how Phoenix44's shells help keep the pH stable. I would like to have nice plant growth in the tank, the plant with the biggest potential to get huge that i have my eyes on would be the Tiger Lotus. But then again, anything green i'm attracted to. So yeah, is there anything special i can do now, that'll reap benefits in the future?

There are some nice looking Crypts too i've seen. Or do you think that, adding things to help certain plants growth can be implemented in the future?

Forgot to mention, that with Jennifers Propagating Sand, Daltons i believe it is. I'm concerned that there will be too many pebbles or whatever they are. Not much of a pebble kinda dude..

Forgot to mention, that with Jennifers Propagating Sand, Daltons i believe it is. I'm concerned that there will be too many pebbles or whatever they are. Not much of a pebble kinda dude..

If you don't want pebbles you might as well go with straight silica sand. Put some gravel underneath it, though, for the plant roots. In my last tank I had a layer of aquabasis, then a layer of pea gravel, then a layer of sand, and the plant growth was fairly out of control.

Aqua Basis, how much would i be looking at for a decent amount of that? Proposed tank size is 101x41x50 cm

You're welcome to come get some black sandy stuff from me. Its directly from lake taupo. Its pretty nice. I can give you a picture if you like?

Sure, i'd love to! ( See a picture )

Ethan, I'm going out to Howick sometime over the weekend to pick up the black widows from Allister and Snivy if transport is an issue for you