Carib Sea ACS00223 African Ivory Coast Sand for Aquarium, 20-Pound

Didnt like it at all, ended up back with the rocks

No está bueno se me murieron mis pescaos

Made a great substrate for my Cichlid tank. Helps PH levels, keeps water clear.

Really like this sustrate took forever to wash and after 6 riseing still clouded up the tank so bad I couldnt but after I rised the filter a couple times it cleared up by the next morning. What I really like about it is Ive been doing pH up for 3 days and saw no change the alkaline was dangerously low. And after I put the substrate in both raised to a heathly level and the pH when up from a light orange to a dark redish orange so now once the tank sets another day I can finally add chiclets like ive been looking forward to doing.

A#1

This appears to be a decent product. It was easy to clean and my aquarium is crystal clear after a few hours. If you are setting up a 40 gallon I would probably get five bags of this. if you’re setting up a 55 gallon I will get six or seven bags

good

I first bought a bag of the African Sahara Sand some time ago and it was great - a smooth even mid-grade black and white sand that looked and felt great in my tank. Naturally, I wanted to add some more later. So I ordered another bag that I would add when I rearranged the fully planted tank in the near future. To start off the follow-up purchase, I received the completely INCORRECT product - a bag of river gravel instead of the black and white African Sahara sand. No big deal really. Accidents happen and I was able to return the bag for a refund and repurchase another bag of the good African Sahara sand that I liked ... or so I thought. When this most recent bag of sand arrived, I unboxed it and from a cursory glance, noted that I had received an apparent bag of black and white African Sahara sand. Unfortunately, I set is aside with my other supplies, as I was not yet ready to overhaul the tank. Well, finally this past week it was time for the tank overhaul and time to use the sand. This is when the next--and worst--problem was discovered. And doubly unfortunate was the fact I had simply set it aside for so long, missing my window to return a truly terrible product. Anyway ... as I began rinsing the utterly filthy no rinse sand, I noticed a thick layer of black accruing on the surface of the substrate as the dark grey rinse water poured off. What this turned out to be was a slew of crushed lava rock consisting of 1/16 to 1/8 inch (and even some 1/4 inch!) sized little lava rock balls. By my estimation, a good 40% of this bag of alleged sand, is made up of these poorly crushed, sharp pieces of black lava rock. This is GARBAGE substrate, and especially not good for the sensitive barbels of my loaches and catfish. Now, sure, I can sift out these annoying tiny lava rock balls cup by cup and have the black and white sand left over, but why should I have to go through all of that only to lose nearly half the volume of the product that I paid for? Bottom line: Buy Carib Sea products at your own risk. My experience breaks down as follows; Purchase 1 - Great stuff, I love it. I want some more. Purchase 2 - Wrong product entirely. Return, Refund, Try Again. Purchase 3 - Right product, but the Quality is Absolute TRASH. You have no idea how ill I am that I set this aside for when it was time to overhaul the tank and add it, completely missing my return window. I WANT a refund. No. Better yet, I WANT to receive the CORRECT product of HIGH QUALITY. But now, Im pretty much out of luck. So this review serves as a warning that you may get great stuff when buying this, or you may end up with the wrong stuff, or with utter garbage quality stuff. Caveat emptor my fellow aquarists.

This is a decent substrate. Ive had this sand in a 150 gallon cichlid tank for a about a year with no issues. Fairly easy to clean. Looks nice with holey rock. One word of caution to my fellow hobbyists, the black granules in this substrate are made of a ferrous material that will cling to magnetic glass cleaners. Be careful that you dont scratch your glass accidentally.

Sand looks great in my 125 gal. It really helps to keeps pH where I need it to be