Hagen Geosystem Substrate

Yup, that's right I'm reviewing sand!

http://www.hagen.com/uk/aquatic/product.cfm?CAT=1&SUBCAT=109&PROD_ID=01126480030101

Against my better judgement I went for brand name sand (ha ha ha), mostly because I wanted as black as can be, and pool sand simply doesn't come in that variety.

Well firstly I'll tell you it looks nothing like the pictures.

It's more of a generally darker, mixed type of river sand. The silica type stuff I got from Zafgaveegal is a whole lot more black in general...BUT the reason I actually posted here about sand is the fact that this stuff actually does what it says.

I'm not going to tell you that you don't need to wash it at all, but I literally drained some water from my tank into a bucket added the sand, have it all of a 15 second stir with my hand and then rinsed it out.

Literally one rinse and it went into the tank, with the water remaining pretty much crystal clear throughout.

So sure pool sand is cheap compared to the R200 for 10kg of this stuff, but pool sand is a hell of a lot of effort in comparison, at least according to what I've heard.

 

Nice!! Where did you get it from Sauron? Been looking for something like this for a while now.

 

black is black

I'm interested, to hear more, thanks for this!

So Shaun, it's not quite black as the linkpic then?

And is the price quoted ,your deal at "wholesale cost" or is that the normal expected retail?

WHAT is "the stuff" supposed to do? :wondering:
I couldn't find info on hagen's site....
I'm guessing not Enriched for plants,so just as a pH neutral, attractive substrate. Which, in itself, is good to have!

Nice to hear a few words on sand..now and again :blink1:

 

I rounded the price off to R200, since I think I paid about R150 for 10kg at cost. But I bought 5 x 2kg bags as well, so a single 10Kg should be a bit cheaper.

I should have taken a pic of it while it was in the bag, since my tank has a whole lot of different mixes in there now, but I fortunately haven't quite mixed it all up yet so I'll take a pic and post it here so you can see more or less what it comes out like.

It's not specially enriched from what I can tell, and it does have a warning on that it could be a Ph buffer.

Took this with my phone quick.

As you can see it's pretty black, it's just that there are some white bits and other colours as well, so I'd say it's about 80% black.

The nice thing is that it appears natural, whereas the super pure black stuff might have looked a bit artificial.

 

I've sure you would be able to order it from anyone who stocks any Hagen (Hangen, Marina, Fluval) products.

 

shot!

Thanx,
Appreciate your feedback.
Now we ALL have a better idea .