Bdbs Vs Aquarium Sand

I am wondering if there is a difference in time cleaning Black Diamond blasting sand and regular aquarium sand in time and rinses.

 

I have not had the black diamond blasting sand before in order to test this, so I wouldn't know, but I do know that the regular pet store aquarium sand doesn't take very long to rinse, nor does it contain much debris at all.

 

I have had some BDBS that rinses really quick and easy. Then I've had some that's more oily and takes a while. But at $8 for 50 pounds I don't mind. I have it in all my tanks. Which is.....*mentally counting* 7 if you include my temporary nursery tank with panda cory fry.

 

I actually do not rinse BDBS. But I have a high level of filtration in my aquariums. It has little dust to start with and is vastly less expensive than pet store sand.

 

Fanatic. That’s always a plus! Quick rinse.

JLeeM. My only concern is my shoulder as a use my hand to stir the sand around. And I’m bending over a bucket. Awwww! Fry!!

Thunder_o_b. Oh wow!! I have a nice amount. I have a filter with enough flow to do the tank by itself and a 2nd filter just for back and extra filtration.

 

Fanatic. That’s always a plus! Quick rinse.

JLeeM. My only concern is my shoulder as a use my hand to stir the sand around. And I’m bending over a bucket. Awwww! Fry!!

Thunder_o_b. Oh wow!! I have a nice amount. I have a filter with enough flow to do the tank by itself and a 2nd filter just for back and extra filtration.

I'll also say that I am SUPER paranoid about washing sand. I strive extra hard for absolute zero cloudiness after putting it in. I also have only washed BDBS for new tank setups. If you're interested in using it, a lot of people stick a garden hose into a pillow case full of BDBS and rinse that way. Less manual churning. Easier on the back and shoulders.

 

so I first used the entire bag of bdbs and boy, it was a pain to rinse. rinse rinse rinse. I ran out and for my new tank, I decided to use petco's black sand because I didn't want to spend so much time washing that stuff again (and I hope I won't get any more tanks to need 50 more pounds of sand). I was very surprised and pleased to find that the petco sand had virtually no dust at all. however, a lot of it floated, which was annoying. it's lighter weight than blasting sand and isn't as dark or sparkly. so i'm disappointed by the look but happy it was so easy to clean.

 

JLeeM. Dittio. I was washing for four hours!! 100lbs of it though. I never even thought of a pillowcase. Oh wow!

midna. Oh I rinsed for hours with the BDBS in my 55! Heheh. I agree the Petco sand is lighter and not so dark. I have Petco in my betta tank

 

I definitely found the caribsea super naturals black sand to be much, much easier to wash than bdbs.
If I do decide to use bdbs again, I will try to find a way to rinse it with warm water. The bag I got was rather oily.

 

I definitely found the caribsea super naturals black sand to be much, much easier to wash than bdbs.
If I do decide to use bdbs again, I will try to find a way to rinse it with warm water. The bag I got was rather oily.

I have not heard of that before . Yeah my bags were oily too. I think that’s what took so long to wash.

 

I have BDBS in 2 of my tanks. Was 3, but I changed the aesthetic.
I just put it in, filled it up with water, no cloudiness at all. I tried rinsing once, but it just made it messy.
The BDBS that I bought was the fine grain, so maybe that could be why it didn't give any issues just pouring in tank and filling with water.

 

I have BDBS in 2 of my tanks. Was 3, but I changed the aesthetic.
I just put it in, filled it up with water, no cloudiness at all. I tried rinsing once, but it just made it messy.
The BDBS that I bought was the fine grain, so maybe that could be why it didn't give any issues just pouring in tank and filling with water.

Oh wow! See and I rinsed it because I was told to do so so the water wouldn’t be cloudy! Hehehe