Substrate: Lime/Marble/Shell (004)

[catcher]

Hi all,

I'm putting a new tank together and was wondering what is best to use as substrate if I want white (ish) and to act as a buffer as well? Crushed coral, crushed granite or ?????????

Cheers

glenn

[canerod]

hey catcher

crushed coral,

washed river sand

gravel under 3mm diameter

all these are pretty natural substrates

depends on your fish of course,

if you have tangs like shellies, mix shellgrit with the sand .

i bought washed sand from soils r us $4 for 20kg the stuff is almost pure white, my shellies love it.

hth

Bob

[fiona]

You can get crushed marble, cheaper than coral and ecologically better. A lot of reefies use in in preference to coral sand. You can get it from a place in (I think) Lakemba, I'll have to check the name of the place, I have it listed somewhere ...

Yeah here we are:

Mini Crete

Lakemba (Head Office)

17 Chapel Street

Lakemba, 2195

Ph. (02) 9740 5722

They have a Seven Hills place too, but I went there a couple of years ago for some and they didn't have any.

It comes in various grades.

[graceless]

bunnings also do "washed sand" in the concrete section.

$6.50 for 25kg bags.

needs to be washed throughly though. i use it in all but one of my tanks. the fish love it

Grace

[j.s]

you could also go for limestone sand, works well as a buffer and looks nice too.

[catcher]

Thanks all,

Limestone sand? I've not heard of it before.

[j.s]

You can buy it in 25kg bags from mineral sand sellers, i dont use it myself but am thinking of switching over from gravel. I think Merjo uses it from memory, he should be able to tell you what its like.

hth