CaribSea Aquatics Super Naturals Aquarium Sand, 50-Pound, Crystal River

There are two versions of the Crystal River Sand from Caribsea. One is just the sand. The other comes packed pre-cultured with nitrifying bacteria. The version that comes pre-cultured with nitrifying bacteria will come in the same plastic bag, but the sand will be moist. And it is not recommended that you rinse it out. Within the bag, you will find two small packets. One is a dechlorinator. The other contains a floculant, to help clear cloudy water. If you are starting a new tank, this is the one that I would recommend. It helps eliminate deadly ammonia spikes. Naturally, you will still want to start with hardy fish until the tank stabilizes. This is a beautiful substrate. The grain size will range from fine to medium. The size is large enough that you can vacuum the bottom without losing too much of your substrate in the siphon hose. This is the ideal size, in my opinion, for most situations. The grains are small enough so that fish feces and other debris cannot work their way into the substrate. And yet, large and heavy enough not to get too much of it get siphoned out during tank maintenance. Some fish species, like Corydoras and German Rams prefer a fine, sand substrate like this. "Crystal" comes from some small, clear grains that catch the light and actually shine. Almost like a sparkle, but not bright. You can use this in a fish-only tank or you can even use this as the substrate for a planted tank. This could very well be the perfect substrate, except for one thing. If you have bright lights, algae will grow on this sand. And that ruins the beauty of it. Darker sand still grows algae, but hides it. Bottom line. If you can keep your tank clean, this is perfect for you. If you are slack on maintenance, pick a darker sand. There is a black sand from the same manufacturer called Tahitian Moon. It is slightly finer and it hides algae very well. Oh, and one other thing. If you keep rainbows, they will tend to exhibit their best colors when their sand is dark. Update: I bought a five-pound bag to replace the small amount that I lose through the gravel vacuum hose during each water change. Some will leave the tank when you get rid of unwanted plants too.

I got the 20 pound bag for a 30" x 13" x 18" 29 gallon tank. With about half an inch or so covering the bottom I still have 1/3 of the bag left. I had no issues with it clouding the water as the instructional method of cutting the corners and flushing it with a hose worked really well. I kept the bag in a large bucket while filling it and stirring it with the hose. Once the bucket was nearly full of runoff water I poured the excess water in the bag out and repeated the process. I did this 6 or 7 times. There was only about a teaspoon of loose sand in the bucket. Another thing that helped was how I placed the sand in the aquarium. The tank was already populated with fish so I didn't want to just pour the sand in over them. I scooped the thoroughly rinsed sand out of the bag and gently poured it in just a few inches from the bottom. No cloudiness. I didn't even bother with the included Bio-Magnet Clarifier. It looks great.

I wanted to switch from gravel to an aquatic sand for my betta fish after having several pumps ruined by sucking tiny pieces of Rick into them. Sand seemed like a great option and after lots of research I settled on this! Overall is really beautiful, doesn't have issues with floaters or dust particles, and looks beautiful! It's much much cleaner looking and he seems to enjoy it (the betta fish). My tank is almost 4 gallon, so this 20lb bag will last him forever. Very happy with this purchase and the overall quality of this fresh water sand. Highly recommended!

Great product for my aquarium. Doesn't need to be rinsed.

Sand is beautiful. A bit beige mixed with white, but the crystals are still very pretty. A bit hard to wash without a hose, but a good few rinses in a bucket like washing rice, helped. Just don't dump the water in the drain as its bad if sand is stuck in the drains! I toss the cloudy water into the streets instead. I like the extra little packet of bio-magnet clarifier. It helped the water clear up faster. Nice touch. This filled a fair thin layer over half my elongated 35 gallon tank. You can see in photos. I will need 3 more bags if I want a thicker 1 inch layer to fill my entire tank. Luckily, half looks pretty enough. I have not tried cleaning it yet, so a bit worried that sand might get sucked in my pump. Guess I'll know on cleaning day. Hope it works out. ;)

The sand is great, a nice natural color and extremely soft, so its easy for my guys to dig around in--much better than the gravel I replaced. But again, it is very important to rinse the sand to save yourself a lot of trouble in the future. I got 2 20lb bags and I rinsed it in 3 buckets, until the water was clear and then some to just be sure. This wasn't a brand new tank, I added the sand while the fish were still in there so I wanted to avoid any issues. Sand went in without a hitch, I didn't use the included clarifier as I like to limit the chemicals going into my aquarium. I ran a water polisher for a few hours and the tank is crystal clear.

It was very easy to clean. I took the end of my hose and did like the instructions suggested: cut two holes in top of bag at either end, and stuck one end of the hose thru one hole deep down and turned on the water. Eventually, I just stuck my faucet wand (unscrewed the wand part) right into the bag). It only took a very small amount of rinsing before it ran clear. There was minimal cloudiness once I put it in the tank. I started doing it with a lemonade jug but ended up just pouring it in with the bag. No problems with the fish, at all. I put a good amount in my 29g, enough for real and plastic plants to be covered well and still had enough to put a thin layer in my 55g. I usually only keep bare bottom tanks, so I only wanted enough to just cover the bottom without it being deep. So one bag worked for two tanks. 40 would've been over-kill, despite 1.5-2 20lb bags being suggested for my 29g. Within 30 mins the 29 was completely clear and the 55 never wasn't. Very pleased, it looks great.

Placing a 1.5 inch layer of this material on top of our potted plants has solved our problems with Fungus Gnats. They can no longer burrow into the soil to lay their eggs. We'd tried hydrogen peroxide and mosquito dunks which would knock their numbers down for awhile but they kept coming back. Not anymore 😁 The sand is very clean, beautifully white, and the plants look much better.

This substrate provides a really nice natural environment for your tank. The sand is very soft, not sharp and it is very easy to clean. I have corydoras that are constantly searching the sand with their barbels for food. They have no problem with this substrate because the grains are of ideal size. Neither too fine, which makes your water dusty, and not too big like small rocks. In fact, the grains of sand are large enough to vacuum the bottom without losing too much substrate like fine sand does. Conversely, the grains are small enough so that debris (algae, excrement, food) cannot infiltrate the substrate. For rinsing: I put the sand in a large bowl and run fresh tap water through the bowl. When it's full, I stir and gently remove the water from the top. Then, I start again 5-6 times, being careful to avoid losing too much sand in the sink. Only the fine suspended particles need to be removed. Clean technique and without cloudy water: My tank being already in operation and planted, I put the sand directly into it with the bottle technique. To tell you the truth, my water didn't even get cloudy with this method! It consists in filling a plastic bottle (e.g. a 2L Coke bottle) with sand through a funnel. When your bottle is full, you screw the cap on and put the bottle in your tank as close to the bottom as possible. You unscrew the cap with your hands in the water and the sand flows out of the bottle without making any unwanted fog! This sand is perfect for not blurring the water! Quantity required: As an example, a minimum of two 5 pound bags are required for a 15 gallon aquarium of 41x39x39 cm (16x15x 5") to obtain a good two inches of sand. ================= Français ================= Ce substrat procure un environnement naturel vraiment très joli à votre aquarium. Le sable est très doux, aucunement coupant et il est très facile à nettoyer. J'ai des corydoras qui fouillent constamment le sable avec leurs barbillons pour trouver leur nourriture. Ils n'ont aucun problème avec ce substrat car les grains sont de taille idéale. Ni trop fin, qui rendent votre eau poussière, ni trop gros comme les petites roches. En fait, les grains de sable sont suffisamment gros pour aspirer le fond sans perdre une trop grande quantité de substrat comme le sable fin. À l'inverse, les grains sont suffisamment petits pour que les débris (algue, excrément, nourriture) ne puissent pas s'infiltrer dans le substrat. Pour le rinçage: J'ai mis le sable dans un grand bol et fait couler de l'eau fraîche du robinet dans le bol. Quand c'est plein, je remue et je vide délicatement l'eau sur le dessus. Puis, je recommence 5-6 fois en faisant attention de ne pas perdre trop de sable dans l'évier. Seules les particules fines en suspension doivent être débarrassées. Technique propre et sans eau brouillée: Mon aquarium étant déjà en fonction et planté, j'ai mis le sable directement dans celle-ci avec la technique de la bouteille. Pour tout vous dire, mon eau n'a même pas brouillée avec cette méthode! Il s'agit de remplir de sable une bouteille en plastique (ex. un 2L de Coke) avec un entonnoir. Quand votre bouteille est pleine, vous vissez le bouchon et entrer la bouteille dans votre aquarium le plus près que possible du fond. Vous dévissez le bouchon avec vos mains dans l'eau et le sable s'écoule de la bouteille sans faire de brouillard indésirable! Ce sable est parfait pour ne pas brouiller l'eau! Quantité requise: À titre d'exemple, au minimum deux sacs de 5 livres sont requis pour un aquarium 15 gallons de 41x39x39 cm (16x15x 5 po) afin d'obtenir un bon deux pouce de sable.

The website says that it is a 50 lb bag, but in reality, the bag itself reads 40 lbs. It is a 40 pound bag and not 50 pounds.

40lbs not 50lbs

So i bought this as a test bag as I've never used sand befor in a tank and the tank was already established. The Bio Magnet worked extremely well. The sand quality its superb. Im very surprised by it. My Zebra Fish and my Cory Cats started making nests in it and laying eggs withing 15 mins of me adding this sand. It went down with sooo little dust and just looks great. Im very impressed