Sand question

[mrnish]

Ok...so I was gonna start out by buying some sand for my tank, and reading on a lot of forums, people said to buy aragonite sand. I went to petco and saw Nature's Ocean live sand and another very fine white sand from the same company, but it did not say "aragonite" anywhere on the bag. Would this be aragonite sand??....

Second question...is sand better than substrate?

...Thanks for your guys' help!!

 

[Bifferwine]

Sand is a type of substrate. Substrate just means whatever stuff you put at the bottom of your tank. Crushed coral is another common type of substrate, and that stuff causes problems. So stick with sand.

If the brand of sand was Nature's Ocean, that will be fine for your tank. It is an aragonite sand (although I'm not sure why it didn't say that on the bag).

You can buy the live sand if you want, but it costs more money and if you buy dry sand, it will become live sand over time anyways. So most people don't spend the extra money on the live sand in the beginning.

 

[mrnish]

Thanks very much!!!...The other bag was crushed coral...I thought it was called substrate. Cool!!...It was 5.99 for a 10LB bag....Thanks again bifferwine!!!...you da bomb!

 

[Bifferwine]

Yeah, stay away from crushed coral! Glad I could help.