I have used 3 colors, blue, orange-ish, and black 3 times.
Loved the blue and orange very clean (rinsed all of it well). Had good experience with the 1st bag of black, almost 2 years ago, 2nd time bought another bag to supplement quantity and had awful experience with it foaming in my tank, about a year ago. And the 3rd bag purchased at the same time but went into a different tank had no problems at first. I eventually combined all the Petco sand into one tank.
Later now I am finding the color coming off and some of the "black" sand looks like grains of (clearish to white) coarse sugar. I am really disappointed in the last two bags of black. It seemed much more fine than the first bag I bought. I was wondering if it was the bottom of the batch or something.
I would just try to make sure to try and stay away from silty looking sand Petco sand, just uniform grains.
The instructions say not to rub it too much, and I cleaned it with my hands once, but not really vigorously, lol.
The blue was used for appx a year or so and the orange has been used for nearing 2 years (still in one tank), no problems.
I also had CaribSea sand and sucked up lots of it. The Petco sinks much more quickly as it is generally much more coarse.
Occasionally I had a little bit of it float. Just stirred it around and it sank.
Have you ever considered Eco Complete. I have been using it and there is no rinsing. Amazon will do free shipping with $25, free shipping on "rocks" is nice
