Sand Substrate Supposed To Be White?

[Snailyy]

Hey Fishfoum,

I recently purchased super natural moonlight sand from Caribbean Sea (x2 20lbs x1 5lbs) and I have a small problem.

When I picked up the two 20lbs bags they had algae in them with a slight brown colour, just the 20lbs, not the 5lbs bag. The small bag had perfect white colour with no algae and after washing the 20lbs pound the sand has turned kind of grey.

Should I return them or is there anyway to fix the colouration? Will my filter clean the sand? Please let me know if I’m missing something.

 

[AquaticJ]

Those are different brands. They’re both the colors they’re supposed to be.

 

[Snailyy]

They’re both Carib sea

 

[wodesorel]

It's not a true bright white, it is sort of a greyish white, but if you have any tannins from driftwood it sort of evens out into a bright ecru. I found a lot of black bits that sunk once I got done rinsing the sand out which I thibk accounts for the grey tones, but I bought the dry kind rather than the wet packed. The sand does not stain, even when I went blackwater for several years it brightened back up when I started using Purigen.

 

[Snailyy]

Thankyou so much! This is actually really helpful, I just picked up purigen also I’m adding some Malaysian driftwood. That puts me a bit at ease For me, I got instant start sand instead of the kind advertised on the site I but w/e, same colour. It’s good to know it’ll look a bit brighter, thankyou

It's not a true bright white, it is sort of a greyish white, but if you have any tannins from driftwood it sort of evens out into a bright ecru. I found a lot of black bits that sunk once I got done rinsing the sand out which I thibk accounts for the grey tones, but I bought the dry kind rather than the wet packed. The sand does not stain, even when I went blackwater for several years it brightened back up when I started using Purigen.

 

[Otto1]

I have found when I rinsed my white sand, it turned gray. But once in the tank, it turned white. I always found it strange.

 

[wodesorel]

It really is a nice shade!

 

[AquaticJ]

Sorry, didn’t mean brand, meant product. The live sand is darker than the regular sand. If you add a brand new, fresh piece of unsoaked drift wood, purigen will not save you from tannins crazy how much wood can color your water.

 

[wodesorel]

I have had no trouble with the purigen and unsoaked driftwood! It will need to be recharged quickly which is the only downside, mine went from white to walnut overnight. I bought a second bag and just swap out as needed so the tanks are never empty. I had the one on the right in the above tank for five days with two new boiled pieces of mopani, no pre-soaking. The water has stayed clear!

 

[Snailyy]

I have had no trouble with the purigen and unsoaked driftwood! It will need to be recharged quickly which is the only downside, mine went from white to walnut overnight. I bought a second bag and just swap out as needed so the tanks are never empty. I had the one on the right in the above tank for five days with two new boiled pieces of mopani, no pre-soaking. The water has stayed clear!View attachment 441407

Wow thankyou so much, you’ve been beyond helpful that’s awesome!!! And it looks so good in your tank I’m impressed. Love your style lol. I’ll swap it out and keep and eye on it!! I’ve never hand this kind of sand, I’m swapping out my national geo white sand which is more similar to gravel and nothing like sand at all.

Sorry, didn’t mean brand, meant product. The live sand is darker than the regular sand. If you add a brand new, fresh piece of unsoaked drift wood, purigen will not save you from tannins crazy how much wood can color your water.

Thankyou! Yeah I noticed that they were different products after but on the website they’re the same picture of the same product??? So idk what happened but you are right, theyre both the same colour and the algae washed out. I boiled the **** out of my drift wood for 4hours each and soaked them for 2 weeks. They should be okay (I hope). Yeah! I’ll have to watch out for it, I’m definitely switching out my carbon after