Black Diamond blasting sand?

[Mumma.of.two]

I don't think I'd could trust it. I remember reading accounts of fish ingesting it. People doing autopsies and finding it lodged in intestines. It can cut your hands, wear barbels off catfish and loaches and work its way into plants and damages roots. It's magnetic and can stick to impellers and mag floats scratching glass. As I said, I wouldn't trust it.

 

[OBEYtheFISH]

Wow, that made me think a bit. I'm not sure I want to risk abrasions on my fish. Glad you posted this. Thanks!

Look at Edwards catfish
The whiskers on it are perfect no abrasions at all

 

[xander]

I don't know much about the blasting sand that you are looking at but the sand I found that was sold as blasting sand was not whisker safe. As in for catfish. I looked at it under magnification and found jagged pieces not safe round ones that bottom feeders won't get scraped on. Fish that burrow need rounded granules. Just because it's chemically safe doesn't mean it's fish safe. Cory's are very prone to whisker loss in sharp substrate.

 

[Hholly]

Look at Edwards catfish
The whiskers on it are perfect no abrasions at all

Yes, he's beautiful. But I'm worried about my smaller fish. I just got some Yoyo loaches and I worry about what would happen to a pleco on this stuff.

 

[OBEYtheFISH]

My friend has kuhlis & corys in his 60 with black beauty & there whiskers seem perfectly fine

 

[kelbaker79]

All of my bottom feeders are fine. My cichlids like to play in it, even half bury themselves sometimes, never had a problem, but, its utimately your decision

 

[meegosh]

BigJim has been using it for a while in his 40B with great success. He recommends it to everyone. Just be sure if you get a different brand or grain size, rub some between your palms to see if it is too sharp before you buy a bag.

He mentioned before that the brand he got was not recycled and in that respect, better than some of the other brands.

Edit: Found his build thread with a nice writeup about it:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...ts-of-stuff-im-not-supposed-to-do-135891.html

 

[Bschowa]

Here is an update from me.

i actually used the black diamond brand blasting sand to cap my dirt tank, i went to the distributor and picked up 12/30 grade which isnt sold in stores. an 80lbs bag for 13$ a little more than what they sell it for in stores but from reading previous posts i think i got a good deal.

it took me about 10 min to wash all that i needed (id say 20lbs) the water ran clear just about instantly but i wanted to get the small floating pieces all out so i washed it extra.

it also is not sharp at all, i think the larger grains are better than smaller?

it also didnt cloud at all when i put it in the tank which surprised me.

i took a few pictures so that you could see what it ended up looking like. this is just filling up so excuse the bubbles.

This picture is of my existing shrimp tank in which i used CaribSea black moon sand which retails at 22$ for a 20lbs bag

These picture of are the Black Diamond blasting sand which cost me $3.25 for 20lbs
i think that they look almost exactly the same, grain size is a bit bigger in the Black Diamond but the color looks the same even the little gold flecks

 

[Hholly]

Looks nice!

 

[Bschowa]

thanks! iv got a nice shipment of plants coming in soon so hopefully we can get this tank rolling

 

[Hholly]

Yeah, keep us posted how it goes.

 

[savage]

Yes! Keep us posted. I'm definitely intrigued.