I added this substrate one month ago. Since then the pH has been above 9 and alkalinity has been almost zero. This sand is an awful decision for any aquarist who wants to keep aquatic animals alive for more than a day. An entire bottle of pH down in a 10 gallon tank has been unable to lower the pH even slighlty.

Love this product, it's beautiful in our tanks, goes great with the white rocks we had from before. We have it on top of the lava dirt, that lowers the PH, this product ups the PH so it evens itself out nicely.

I recently bought this product as an inert substrate for my convicts. Before adding them however i found the ph to be ridiculously high. I removed everything one at a time until all that was left in the tank was the quartz substrate. So if you're looking for an inert substrate that will keep your water neutral ph this isn't it. However i have a couple tanks with a lot of driftwood in and black substrate and this is just what i needed to raise the ph and not change the look, adding a small amount each time i was able to balance the ph to neutral! That is why i gave this a 4*! It worked great to raise the ph if added slowly, this should be noted in the product description after the company reads this! Then it'd be a 5*! Thanks for solving a different problem for me! I'm sure i will be getting more for the next tank because i love driftwood! Lol

This is very fine. The package says it’s triple washed, but suggests to rinse the substrate which is indeed necessary. However once in place, it is indeed beautiful and will help your plants to root and grow.

I had this crap in my shrimp tank and kept loosing shrimp in droves and could not figure out why. I just happen to drop my magnetic glass cleaner in the tank and this stuff stuck to it!!! Its completely metal which cause HUGE amounts of dissolved metals and lots of dead shrimp for me. Its not safe at all and it is not quartz!!!!