Garnet Sand - Pic anyone?

[Autumnsky]

Good substrate? The crystal structure seems more rounded, and have heard a couple good things.

Does anyone have a picture/experiences? Please share!

I need to make a decision in the next few days. At this point maybe going with Black Diamond Blasting sand for planted tank 37 gal. or maybe Eco-Complete, my LFSs don't have it though, have to look farther away.

 

[Autumnsky]

Found this at my local farm supply store for $49.95 for 50 lb can. Haven't had time to try to price compare yet. Also haven't been able to find Black Diamond Sand at the places I have checked so far.

 

[toddnbecka]

Tractor Supply sells Black Diamond, and it's not actually sand. It's coal slag, intended to be used for sandblasting. There's another company that sells the same thing under the name Black Beauty blasting grit.

 

[Autumnsky]

Just checked and Tractor Supply doesn't have any stores in Colorado : (

 

[toddnbecka]

Just google coal slag + Colorado, and you'll find sellers who carry Black Beauty.

 

[Autumnsky]

Thanks toddnbecka. Glad to know there is another one I can use.

Still looking for anyone with Garnet sand/ experiences and pics?!?!!!

 

[Autumnsky]

Went to the farm supply store and actually looked at the garnet abrasive sand. It was very nice but too fine for what I was looking for.

I spoke with a really nice guy today and he has all kinds of sands/media for filters and other uses. His garnet sand is running around $17-18 for 25 lbs plus 9.95 USPS flat rate shipping. His sizes are 50, 36, 16, and 8/12 more like little stones and a little different color, most of them are a little purple color, but they vary depending on mine origin too. At least several of these are mined in the USA.

Garnet's crystal structure is more rounded like a faceted stone and a little less sharp, it is dense and heavy and contains much less silica, less than .5% than some sands/media. Very clean, and no heavy metals.

I think I am going for Garnet!

 

[Botanica]

Hi...I really love this idea! Garnets are my youngest daughters birthstone...lol. I googled it to see what it looked like and fell in love! I'm going shopping in my area for some for our new tank build. I found this photo of it in a tank and thought I would share...in case you haven't seen it.

 

[Autumnsky]

The colors vary greatly, the one at the hardware store was sort of the color of the pic, but also clear, amber, whitish opaque, black. The one online was mostly rosey lavender. Another one was more amber and black and reddish, so it can be very different but very cool! PM me and I will give you the info if you want it for the guy I spoke with if you can't find it locally

****also, they don't necessarily refer to it as sand blasting sand. Abrasive blasting media, they said they thought I wanted silica sand type!!! So be specific because, I was told more than once they didn't have it, but they actually did.

 

[Autumnsky]

Just as a general update...

I have used the Garnet sand from around then to now and it works great!

I even used it to try it out in my 5G SW nano tank and it is working very nicely. About 8 months now.

Even considering it for my 35G SW upgrade. The look for the Macro Algae tank looks nice and warm.