# petco black sand



## Guest (Nov 6, 2011)

Have anyone try the sand from petco?
Petco brand......good for root plant?...
Same or better then pfs?


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## toddnbecka (Jun 30, 2006)

I use Black Diamond blasting grit, picked up 2 50 lb bags at Tractor Supply for the price of 1 20 lb bag of petco's black sand. It's actually coal slag, completely inert, looks/acts like sand for a substrate but no silica so no diatoms. The 20-40 is a little bigger grain size than the 30-60, so it's easier to siphon. Any sort of sand is fine for rooted plants, but doesn't contain any nutrients like eco-complete.


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## snyderguy (Feb 9, 2010)

Does that stuff work pretty well?


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## toddnbecka (Jun 30, 2006)

It's been used for aquarium substrate for planted tanks for some time w/out any problems. Here's a few pix of my 220:









The lighter bits are small-grade gravel, I put in 50 lbs of that before I got the 100 lbs of Black Diamond. I was thinking of mixing them thoroughly to look more like the eco-complete substrate, but like the darker look better. Since the gravel is a larger particle size the Black Diamond should cover it back up as it's siphoned up and then falls back down:


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## snyderguy (Feb 9, 2010)

It looks nice! And it looks like your plants are doing fairly well in it


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## toddnbecka (Jun 30, 2006)

The Val's have only been in there a couple weeks now, it remains to be seen how well they'll grow long-term, but they are living rather than dying off. Those and a bit of water sprite are the test cases, if they work out I'll add more Val's as I go along.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

i was just looking at my local tractor supply site....i am going to look into getting some...i have several tanks that the wife will be aquascaping...45 hex...30 or 40 extra tall..46 bowfront...125...and a couple of others..the 40 flatback hex will be salt so no BD for it..


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## Guest (Nov 8, 2011)

Thanks Todd, ill look into it n see if I can find a near tractor supply store.
Oh yeah I might need some guppy grass so ill pm u when time come.


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