Carib Sea ACS00223 African Ivory Coast Sand for Aquarium, 20-Pound

good

I first bought a bag of the African Sahara Sand some time ago and it was great - a smooth even mid-grade black and white sand that looked and felt great in my tank. Naturally, I wanted to add some more later. So I ordered another bag that I would add when I rearranged the fully planted tank in the near future. To start off the follow-up purchase, I received the completely INCORRECT product - a bag of river gravel instead of the black and white African Sahara sand. No big deal really. Accidents happen and I was able to return the bag for a refund and repurchase another bag of the good African Sahara sand that I liked ... or so I thought. When this most recent bag of sand arrived, I unboxed it and from a cursory glance, noted that I had received an apparent bag of black and white African Sahara sand. Unfortunately, I set is aside with my other supplies, as I was not yet ready to overhaul the tank. Well, finally this past week it was time for the tank overhaul and time to use the sand. This is when the next--and worst--problem was discovered. And doubly unfortunate was the fact I had simply set it aside for so long, missing my window to return a truly terrible product. Anyway ... as I began rinsing the utterly filthy no rinse sand, I noticed a thick layer of black accruing on the surface of the substrate as the dark grey rinse water poured off. What this turned out to be was a slew of crushed lava rock consisting of 1/16 to 1/8 inch (and even some 1/4 inch!) sized little lava rock balls. By my estimation, a good 40% of this bag of alleged sand, is made up of these poorly crushed, sharp pieces of black lava rock. This is GARBAGE substrate, and especially not good for the sensitive barbels of my loaches and catfish. Now, sure, I can sift out these annoying tiny lava rock balls cup by cup and have the black and white sand left over, but why should I have to go through all of that only to lose nearly half the volume of the product that I paid for? Bottom line: Buy Carib Sea products at your own risk. My experience breaks down as follows; Purchase 1 - Great stuff, I love it. I want some more. Purchase 2 - Wrong product entirely. Return, Refund, Try Again. Purchase 3 - Right product, but the Quality is Absolute TRASH. You have no idea how ill I am that I set this aside for when it was time to overhaul the tank and add it, completely missing my return window. I WANT a refund. No. Better yet, I WANT to receive the CORRECT product of HIGH QUALITY. But now, Im pretty much out of luck. So this review serves as a warning that you may get great stuff when buying this, or you may end up with the wrong stuff, or with utter garbage quality stuff. Caveat emptor my fellow aquarists.

This is a decent substrate. Ive had this sand in a 150 gallon cichlid tank for a about a year with no issues. Fairly easy to clean. Looks nice with holey rock. One word of caution to my fellow hobbyists, the black granules in this substrate are made of a ferrous material that will cling to magnetic glass cleaners. Be careful that you dont scratch your glass accidentally.

Looks fantastic in tank. Prepping tank for Tropheus Ikola cichlids. Instructions say do not rinse, but I’ve have my nightmares with PFS and play sand so i didn’t trust it. I rinsed whole bag in bucket (1 bag in each bucket) filling to top wth water, let settle for a minute and draining. It went from whole milk to non fat in about 45 minutes. I added to full tank (no fish) with FX6 and supplementary filter floss. Within 6 hours it was very clear, within 24 hours it was crystal clear.

I am very happy with this product, looks great and fish love it. A little pricy but worth it.

Love this substrate. I rinsed each bag thoroughly in a 5 gallon bucket until I got The water as clear as I could. I added the water clarifier and water to the aquarium and within a couple hours it was clear. I can’t wait to get some more rocks and add some fish once the tank cycles

I received my sand today - took 1/4 of the bag- put it in a pail and flushed it with the sprinkler on the hose. Just let the bucket fill up and drain itself - moving the sand around the bottom of the pail as the water rushes through and within a few minutes it was clean and the water ran clean. It is very dirty and cloudy when you first start the wash. BUT the beautiful sand your left with is well worth it. It is just gorgeous and will be the base in my globe air fern terrariums. To me this unusual sand is well worth the cost and the effort to clean it up for use. Great buy, and it came faster then expected.

Is what i expected, didnt kill my cichlids or cloud my water to much. Just do as it says and rinse before adding to your tank.

Love Thank you

Looks great. Had a salt and pepper look in my tank and the fish dig it.