# Alternative Black Substrate?



## gforster

So, I was thinking about black substrates. You've got "spectra stone' (yeah, right), ADA Amazonia (expensive), Eco-complete (Expensive), Black Beauty Sandblasting sand (questionable properties), Onyx Sand (buffering capability not always wanted), and the elusive Black Flourite (are they really going to make it or is it just a dangling carrot?) - 

Well, I was wondering - what if I had access to a large amount of activated carbon? Would that work as a substrate? I don't really know.

Another thing I was thinking was, "What are eco-complete and ADA Amazonia?" I mean, they have to come from somewhere. I know Eco-complete is mined somewhere in the USA. 

Those are questions out of pure curiosity. Seriously, is there a viable, cheap alternative for black substrate?


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## John N.

I think Eco Complete is mined from some volcanic rocks, and ADA substrate is a magic manufactured mixture of clay, peat and whatever else. The one substrate that is dark, and you didn't mention was Soil Master Select Charcoal color or Turface. I believe aquariumplants.com packages it in red buckets called "Aquariumplant's Substrate." It's cheap and will do the trick. Or if you have a www.lesco.com or http://www.oildri.com/agri/turforn.htm distributer (maker of this gravel) around your area, you can pick it up yourself.










Though a massive amount of carbon is an intriguing idea which I think would serve just fine as a substrate, it's more expensive then purchasing a commerical planted substrate.

-John N.


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## MiSo

i picked up about 150 lbs of black 3m colorquartz t grade.

i'm going to redo my 75 gallon tank in about a week and its pretty cheap. about $20 per 50lb bag.

i've put a little in in a 20 gallon tank right now just to see how it would look.


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## Overfloater

I had Colorquartz in my Mbuna setup. It works great. I even used it in a planted tank for awhile and plants grew fine as well. Colorquartz is inert but it is a little dirty out of the bag. They also have an S grade that is similar to sand in size.

You didn't mention Tahitian Moon Sand. It's not as cheap as Colorquartz but looks nice.


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## mistergreen

if you can find espoma's products, I believe it is dark gray
http://www.espoma.com/content.aspx?type=asp


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## Newt

John N. said:


> I think Eco Complete is mined from some volcanic rocks,
> 
> -John N.


Eco Complete is man made from natural products. If you know how marketers think then you can decipher what they 'claim'. Its all natural but not naturally occurring. This is why they have had big issues with bad batches and leaching nutrients into the water column.

Seachem has released Flourite Black, Flourite Dark and Flourite Black Sand. This is a mined natural product. Look for it to show up in the online dealers any time now.

Carbon will release loads of phosphate into the water column and eventually will foul the water after it has absorbed all the nasties it scavenges.


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## gforster

You are right, i forgot SMS. There is a Lesco dealer not far from here and they have the charcoal stuff in stock. Very cool.

I also forgot about colorquartz. that is because i don't know where to get it. I think the closest place is in a different state, so i put it out of my mind.

Tahitian moon sand is another one that does not seem to be available near me. I've seen it in one lfs display tank, but none for sale there. They were sold out and would only make a special order.

The espoma dealer search is not working for me and I've not seen any that I can recall.

I had the leeching problems with a bad batch of eco-complete. It killed some great fish last year. They were very understanding/apologetic, replaced my four bags and sent a check to remburse for fish death. For customer service alone i give them an A+. Of course, we could have avoided the problems in the first place. . . It was during a phone conversation they told me they mined their material and hit some "contaminated" spots while mining. Maybe they refine that material and create a man-made material from it? I thought they just added the live bacteria and water.

Thank you all so much for your replies. I keep learning so much from you all.


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## rs79

Black sand blasting media works, it cheap and easy to get. I mean stupid cheap compared to all these designer substrates. Try Home Hardware.


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## gforster

well, i went to lesco today and picked up a bag of soilmaster select charcoal for $11 even including tax. Awesome deal, if i do say so myself. I will put it in the tank this afternoon. I've heard that SMS will absorb nutrients from the water. Should i dose the substrate then so that it will give nutrients to the plants or does it not really matter?


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## ingg

How do you find distributors of the Colorquartz sand? Would love to find this, but have never been able to figure out where to get it.


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## Mud Pie Mama

The manufacturer has a very good website with a special search for finding a distributor:

I hope this link will work for you:
http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/...nMz0vM0Q9KzYsPDdaP0I8yizeINzUz1C_IcFQEAHTt83Y!

If not here are the pathways to get to the product on the 3M website: 
( http://solutions.3m.com/en_US/)

United States > Products & Services > Manufacturing & Industry > Construction & Architecture > 3M™ Colorquartz™ Products > Colorquartz Crystals 
Then: Where to Buy


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## lowfi

has anyone used spectraquartz??? I saw it on a distributor site. It is like that colorquartz stuff...anyone know anything??


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## spypet

can someone with;
*3m Colorquartz Black T-Grade*
photograph it up close against a ruler?
I'm trying to see the grain size range.
I'm looking for something in the 1-2mm range,
no more, no less...


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## Overfloater

spypet said:


> can someone with;
> *3m Colorquartz Black T-Grade*
> photograph it up close against a ruler?
> I'm trying to see the grain size range.
> I'm looking for something in the 1-2mm range,
> no more, no less...












There is an old pic from when I was using it.


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## spypet

*Overfloater* thanks buddy, - it appears to be in the 2-3mm range, sweet


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## CichPhreak

I've got a Lesco by me. If I read this right, Soilmaster Select Charcoal is the same (or similar) to AquariumPlants.com substrate?


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## hoppycalif

Soilmaster certainly looks like it is the same as AquariumPlants.com substrate, but I don't think anyone ever actually confirmed that it is.


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## CichPhreak

Thanks. After reading further I found out that is at least close enough for a number of people to use it. Will have to see if i can get some locally. Appears that could be a problem from what I've read.


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## naman

just fixing the link to 3M™ Colorquartz™ Crystals - http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/ColorQuartz/HomePage/Products/Crystals/


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## MatPat

Out of the options listed so far, I've used the black 3m Color Quartz T grade sand, Soilmaster Select Charcoal colored substrate, and Tahitian Moon Sand. 

My favorite so far is is definitely the 3M Color Quartz. It is a true black and that is my main reason for liking it so well. It holds any plant and is inexpensive as far as "Plant" substrates are concerned, ~$20 for 50lbs. It is also inert so it shouldn't affect the water parameters at all.

Next would be Soilmaster Select Charcoal. This is very inexpensive at ~$15 for 50lbs and one 50lb bag is enough for a 75g tank. It doesn't hold plants quite as well as sand but as long as I use tweezers to plant, the plants don't come up. This is economically the best substrate in my opinion and if it were black instead of charcoal color it would be my favorite. While the batch I have seems to be inert some have claimed it alters their KH which is possible since this substrate is hygroscopic and absorbs the water along with whatever may be in it.

Tahitian Moon Sand is almost as nice as the 3M Color Quartz but it is a much finer grain size. I have had this in a 10g low light setup for about 2-3 years now and it works well but I probably wouldn't use it in a larger tank due to it's cost, ~$20 for 20lbs.

The Black Beauty blasting grit is also an economical substrate but may damage the barbs on Cory cats or the mouths on other bottom feeding fish and possibly shrimp. I haven't used this yet and probably won't. It's hard to say what the composition of this is since it is used as blasting grit.

This past weekend I got an look at the new Black Flourite Sand. It is about the same grain size as Tahitian Moon Sand and is priced similarly when you add in the shipping costs. A SWOAPE member will soon be replacing his Onyx substrate with the Flourite Black Sand so the Jury is still out on how that will work. 

As with all substrates, I tend to choose them by their look first. I no longer consider any of the plant specific substrates like Flourite or Eco Complete any more do to their cost. Plants grow just as well in sand as they do in products marketed for planted tanks as long as the water column is fertilized. I prefer to use the money I save on substrates to pay for fertilizers and more plants


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## El Exorcisto

I use Black beauty blasting grit in my 10 gallon and it's really great stuff. I swear it's the same stuff that's packaged as Tahitian Moon. Here is the chemical makeup according to the manufacturer:

Silicon Dioxide= 47.20%, Aluminum oxide= 21.39%, Titanium dioxide= 1.01%, Ferric Oxide= 19.23%, Calcium oxide= 6.80%, Magnesium Oxide= 1.47%, Potassium Oxide= 1.60% and Sodium Oxide= 0.62%

There's nothing there that scares me about it at all, and it holds plants great.


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## hoppycalif

That black blasting media has sharp edged particles, so it isn't good when you have cory catfish in the tank. When I used it I loved it, but I couldn't keep any cory alive for long. 3M Colorquartz Black is probably a better choice, if you can find it.


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## HockiumGuru

How much of the 3M Colourquart would be recommended for a 48x18x18 planted tank? 1 or 2 of the 50lb bags? I'm assuming 2, but want to make sure before I try to get some. I have a parent that works for 3M, so I can get it super cheap


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## marrow

Buy two bags. One bag wont do it. I recently did a 125 and was surprised how dense this stuff is. I predict that you will use all of both bags. Some people complain about cleaning it but I just put it in a big rectangular (40 gals. or so) tupperware container added a little detergent, shoved a hose to the bottom of the container and gave it a bit of a stir and left the hose on low so there was a constant but slow overflow. I checked it a few hours later and it was clean. They spray it with a light oil to reduce dust and the detergent takes care of that. It holds plants extremely well especially if you are used to SMS or Schultz AS.


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## Newt

Newt said:


> Eco Complete is man made from natural products. If you know how marketers think then you can decipher what they 'claim'. Its all natural but not naturally occurring.


I was contacted (PM) by a Caribsea Rep and I have been corrected. It is a naturally occurring and a mined product. They should state this on the packaging and their website instead of saying "all natural". I had tried to get an answer to this thru their website but never got a response. Then the 'issues'/'bad batches' came out on the boards and assumed it was man made from naturally occurring materials.
Nature usually is consistant with batches, man isn't.


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## HockiumGuru

Overfloater said:


> I had Colorquartz in my Mbuna setup. It works great. I even used it in a planted tank for awhile and plants grew fine as well. Colorquartz is inert but it is a little dirty out of the bag. They also have an S grade that is similar to sand in size.
> 
> You didn't mention Tahitian Moon Sand. It's not as cheap as Colorquartz but looks nice.


Potentially dumb question: What is the plant in the third picture here? I'm having a hell of a time focusing on the picture to tell. If i'm not mistaken its a mat folded up to show the substrate, but I can't be 100% sure. Anyone know for sure what it is?
Thanks.


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## Newt

looks like the roots of glosso


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## CaptainNemo

Back to the blasting grit for a second. First off, I'd never even thought about putting that in my tank. I once saw what blasting grit did to the faces of some cichlids that liked to sift through it, and that sealed it that I'd never put it in my tanks.

However...
Today I was at Tractor Supply and it just happened that someone had spilled some at the checkout and it looked pretty good. I got to thinking. So here's an idea:

I have an electric cement mixer. Could I tumble blasting grit with some granite cobbles or something to round the sharp edges? Is this practical, and how long would anyone guess it would take? Is there anything chemically this stuff does to my water that I don't want? Any ideas on how to tell when it's not sharp anymore, short of buying some test corys and seeing if their barbels get worn off?

Like I said, this got me thinking...


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## El Exorcisto

I've blasted with Black Beauty/Diamond. It recycles for a long time before it loses its edge. I'd be worried about putting it in any tank with cories, or anything that tends to live near the bottom. I'm willing to curve my fish choices based strictly on loving the look of it in my tank.


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