Mixing Onyx and Tahitian moon sands

[spongebob69]

Is this advisable at all or would the plants thrive better with 100 % onyx?

 

[MikeWinLDS]

TM does nothing for plants. You'll probably get two different blacks too. I'd just do one or the other.

 

[Mr Burns]

agreed. onyx isn't black. it's more of a dark grey or charcoal color, whereas tahitian moon is black black black. if you want black for a planted tank, eco-complete is the way to go. during the early planning stages of my big tank, i was going to go with onyx, but i now have six bags of eco-complete sitting in the other room. it is black.

 

[marcus russo]

Eco complete for sure if you want best for plant growth

 

[Guest]

Another vote for Eco. It looks great, plants love it, you don't have to rinse it, or worry about cloudiness EVER.

IMO, Eco is well worth the extra money

 

[Guest]

Another vote for Eco. It looks great, plants love it, you don't have to rinse it, or worry about cloudiness EVER.

IMO, Eco is well worth the extra money

 

[malkore]

I too would go Eco over Onyx or Tahitian...especially since Eco and Onyx are similarly priced.

 

[Guest]

Pictures courtesy of DrsFosterSmith.com and SeaChem.com:

Tahitian Moon

Eco-Complete

Onyx Sand

Onyx Gravel

I'd put a layer of Eco-Complete down and throw a bunch of Tahitian Moon (or similar colored sand) in there. Depending on how much you throw down, the sand will stay on top, since you filled in all the gaps.

 

[marcus russo]

When you do that though the tahitian moon sand falls between the eco complete to the bottom as the eco complete is GENERALLY larger

 

[Guest]

When you do that though the tahitian moon sand falls between the eco complete to the bottom as the eco complete is GENERALLY larger

Depending on how much you throw down, the sand will stay on top, since you filled in all the gaps.

You fill in all the gaps inbetween the larger pieces of Eco-Complete, then the sand can't go down anymore, so the only place left is to go on top. The roots may not like it, but you'll have sand at the top. Next time read all of the post.

 

[marcus russo]

Eventaully all of the stand will still migrate to the bottom though unless you had more sand than eco complete as with cleaning the tank and such you will be knocking it further and further down.
If you use the moon sand in greater quantity you are kinda defeating the purpose of the eco complete as it is MAINLY used as a stand alone substrate

 

[Guest]

What cleaning? The only cleaning that might come into contact with the sand is gravel vacuuming, and you don't plunge it into the substrate, just sweep it over the top. If it's already filled all the way, then it won't migrate down.

And I already said that the plants won't like it. Still, the Eco-Complete will have all the nutrients the plants need, so it doesn't matter if fish poop doesn't find its way down to be absorbed by the Eco-Complete. I'd rather have sand than Eco-Complete.

 

[marcus russo]

Ok then when replanting plants the sand will migrate down.
Thats my final answer
No i would not like to call a friend!

Well maybe

 

[Guest]

Yea, I don't want to get into an argument or anything, but like you said, people who use Eco-Complete use it as a stand-alone substrate, SeaChem even says that on their bags of Onyx. But, I don't like the big granule size of Eco-Complete or Onyx, and I like the small grain size of sand, I think my fish like it better, especially the ones that burrow, so if I do put Eco-Complete in my tank, I top it off with a lot of sand (don't use Tahitian Moon anymore though, because it's too expensive, and I can get the same look with other inexpensive sands). My sand-only tanks, I sometimes use root tabs.

 

[spongebob69]

what type of inexpensive sand do you use? and what colour is it?

 

[Guest]

Sand blasting sand, comes in different colors, but I got black. Also 3M Color Quartz, comes in many different colors, I got black again. I haven't found an Estes yet though, so can't attest to that. Playsand just doesn't come in the colors I want, but I've heard people obtaining different colors not just the beachy sand color.