where do you get your substrate?

[genocidex]

i did the natural looking stuff from lowes, but i want something better for my next 2 tanks. im sure i can get the cichlids nice sand from foster and smiths at a good price but my other tank i have no idea what to use, i was wondering if any one had a good place to find a variety of substrate, all the lfs around here have limited choices lol

[funkman262]

LadyHobbs has a good link to some planted substrate that she uses and recommends (I keep forgetting to bookmark it). Other options for planted tanks include Seachem's black flourite sand or EcoComplete.

[MCHRKiller]

I use either Flourite, Flourite Black, Eco-Complete, Caribsea Aragonite, Caribsea Torpedo Beach or some locally collected riversand. Caribsea is a great substrate company, and they make some of the best inert aquarium sands out there. It is much cleaner and easier to deal with that sand from a hardware type store.

[korith]

For cichlid tank, I used sand from homedepot and mixed it with crushed coral.

One problem with ordering substrate online, is the shipping cost. The weight of it makes shipping pricy, unless you order enough to qualify for the free shipping.

[genocidex]

actually foster and smith is offering free shipping on everything as long as its over 49$ and they said they dont charge extra for substrates :) might be just sticking to them then :P

[Jacko]

I'd say it really depends on what you want to do fish and decor wise... one of my new favorite substrates is Fluval Stratum, my plants love this and the shrimp are all over it.

I'm also fond of mixing Seachem Flourite black and Flourite black sand, gives a really nice texture and it's great for plant growth. Other than that, like the others say CaribSea make some really nice cichlid substrates...

There's always ADA products as well, pricey but they're as beautiful as dirt can be...
www.adana-usa.com
personally I'd rather have slightly less pretty gravel and put the extra 20-30 bucks saved into fish or plants

[Claretta.hamilton]

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[dbosman]

Swiming pool filter "sand" is a great, inert substrate.

Oil-Dri is a sintered or calcined clay that is a lot less expensive than other calcined clay substrates. Color may be limited or vary from bag to bag.

Most farm stores carry a black (Black Diamond is one name) coal slag (glass) blasting media.

The best "trick" is to find a free shipping sale and don't hit the retailer hard enough that they never do that again.