CaribSea Super Naturals Crystal River Sand for Aquarium – 5 lb – Natural Aquascape Sand – pH Neutral – Fish-Friendly, No Paints or Dyes – Safe for All Aquariums

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 received this aquarium sand yesterday. I bought it primarily because I purchased five assassin snails and the love sand. I have a 50 gallon established freshwater tank. I already have soils and gravel at the bottom for my live plants, but assassin snails need sand, and this sand had great reviews. Cleaning it was easy and I just followed the directions on the bag. Waited 30 minutes for the sand to settle before reintroducing the fish to the aquarium. My Corydoras are having a field day! I am infested with mystery snails, so I’m excited to see if assassin snails help with the population and love seeing the pretty sand in my tank. Highly recommend.

I bought this sand for my kuhli loaches for hiding. I did half gravel and half sand. I loved the sand so much I did the entire tank with sand. I used two bags for a 20 gallon but am ordering more. It didnt make the water cloudy the first time and a tiny bit cloudy the second time but cleared very quick. I opened the bag put it under the water and poured the sand it. Helped eliminate clouding and easier to control. very pleased with this sand

I've noe purchased this sand a couple of times for my son's smaller tanks that he likes to breed and hatch tri-ops and sea monkies in. I saw this same size of bag on other sites but glad I ordered here again because I'm happy with the value and price compared to what I had seen in my previous searches online. My son says the sand is clean and he thinks it works well for his small tanks. He has no issues cleaning the sand with his small tank vaccums so we'd order again if needed. Note, we've only used this in small tanks not in any of our larger fish tanks.

We added this to our planted tank for our loaches and I swear, they lost their minds over it. They are so happy, burrowing in it and digging around, burying themselves in it. We occasionally see a head or a tail sticking out of it, its pretty funny. I would recommend using a tube to place it in already filled tanks or it will just disperse and will be hard to make any coherent design.

This is the easiest sand and gravel I’ve ever cleaned. One bag didn’t quite fill my 5 gallon Fluval Chi aquarium enough for plants, but got close. After placing in a bucket and running a high pressure hose through it several times, it was clear as a bell and my tank wasn’t cloudy with fine silt afterward. Really nice appearance in the tank, looks very authentic.

Nice sand, lays out good, nice and tight. Leaves very little room for waste to settle into. It did stress my betta out, and pretty sure it gave the lil guy fin rot. I followed the instructions, except I waited 3 hours or so before adding my fish.

My only regret is not getting more.This sand is the 2nd sheerest sand ive ever had and it's exactly what i needed.When i got it, i tried cleaning it but it barely needed to be cleaned! When i put it in the tank it was barely even cloudy. I'm so very pleased. Thank you!