# Black Substrate



## MrVee (Oct 12, 2007)

Hi Guys

I'm looking for an "affordable" black substrate for my planted aquarium.

No luck really, the closest I could find was a Sandblasting medium called Bastrite. What do you all think about this? Will this work?

http://www.blastrite.co.za/index.php?pg=blast

Your thoughts will be appreciated


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## spypet (Jul 27, 2007)

do a forum search for; 3M Colorquartz T-Grade in Black


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## MrVee (Oct 12, 2007)

I've search everywhere for Colorquarts, But 3M in South Africa do not carry this.


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## tropism (Jul 21, 2006)

I guess you can't get Soilmaster Select Charcoal (not quite black, but pretty dark gray that supposedly gets darker as it ages) there either? The Blastrite looks like it might be ok (to me anyway). It says it's stable, inert, and has "No free leachable metals". I've used something similar (I think it's similar anyway -- hard to tell without being able to see/feel it) called Black Beauty with some success. My concerns would be the size of the blastrite particles (of the stuff listed on the website I would only consider the B125 grade) and the fact that it sounds like the pieces could potentially be sharp. I've heard that fish that are bottom feeders or like to dig in the substrate (Corys or some of the loaches in particular) can be hurt by the Black Beauty stuff (which is also described as "hard and angular"), but the only fish that I've had that feed at the substrate sometimes are otocinclus and siamese algae eaters -- both of which didn't seem to have a problem. I did definitely get better growth from the plants when I switched to Eco-complete though, and I suspect that it might be helpful to enrich the bottom layer of blastrite (if you choose to go with that) in one way or another.

*Some* types of kitty litter can be used in planted tanks, but they would be gray to dark gray, and I don't really know anything about them. I'm sorry I can't think of any other affordable black substrates that might be available in South Africa. 

Hopefully some other people will give their opinions too...?


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## jARDINI (Sep 2, 2007)

seachem now makes black florite. i looks rel nice


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## gotcheaprice (Sep 4, 2007)

I think black flourite is out of his price range. Anyway, I'm using oil dri in my 10 gal which seems to be doing fine(though not heavily planted) and it's mostly black, with some orange particles and stuff, but its been fine with some people so far. Pretty cheap too.


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