If you are looking to add natural looking substrate to your fish tank, then you may have run into the CaribSea Super Naturals Premium Aquarium Substrate brand.
You can find Aquarium Blueprints’ review for the Moonlight Sand version of the product below.
Available Substrate Types
There are many types of the CaribSea Super Naturals Premium Aquarium Substrate available currently. You can check out the list of the types, as well as the grain size and average density, below (via the CaribSea website):
- Blue Ridge: Grain Size = 3.0 to 10.0 mm and Average Density = 114 pounds per cubic foot
- Crystal River: Grain Size = 0.5 to 1.0 mm and Average Density = 95 pounds per cubic foot
- Gemstone Creek: Grain Size = 3.0 to 5.0 mm and Average Density = 96 pounds per cubic foot
- Jelly Beans: Grain Size = 13.0 to 26.0 mm and Average Density = 99 pounds per cubic foot
- Moonlight Sand: Grain Size = 0.25 to 0.75 mm and Average Density = 95 pounds per cubic foot
- Peace River: Grain Size = 1.0 to 2.0 mm and Average Density = 93 pounds per cubic foot
- Rio Grande: Grain Size = 3.0 to 5.0 mm and Average Density = 95 pounds per cubic foot
- Snowy River: Grain Size = 4.0 to 5.0 mm and Average Density = 91 pounds per cubic foot
- Sri Lanka: Grain Size = 5.0 to 26.0 mm and Average Density = 95 pounds per cubic foot
- Sunset Gold: Grain Size = 0.25 to 1.0 mm and Average Density = 94 pounds per cubic foot
- Torpedo Beach: Grain Size = 0.5 to 2.0 mm and Average Density = 94 pounds per cubic foot
- Zen Garden: Grain Size = 9.5 to 13.0 mm and Average Density = 92 pounds per cubic foot
For the uninformed, grain size is now big each individual portion of the substrate is. We prefer smaller sizes as organic wastes, such as uneaten food particles and fish excrement, are less likely to get trapped at the bottom of your tank.
Average density is how much the substrate will weigh. The heavier it is, the less water volume you can have in your aquarium. In general, we prefer having as much water in our tank as possible; therefore, we favor substrate with lower average density.
Pricing
You can check out the current price tag for the 5 pound version of the CaribSea Super Naturals Moonlight Sand Premium Aquarium Substrate on Amazon with this link. (#CommissionsEarned).
Pros
The Moonlight Sand version of the CaribSea Super Naturals Premium Aquarium Substrate is perfect for our Corydoras and Kuhli Loaches as they liked to sift through and even burrow themselves into it. Since there are no sharp edges, we don’t have to worry about our bottom feeding fish possibly hurting themselves.
As we mentioned above, the small grain size of the Moonlight Sand is great at preventing food particles and fish wastes from being stuck on the bed of your fish tank. As a result, cleaning the substrate is a lot easier when compared to having to service substrates that have bigger grain sizes.
What we liked about the CaribSea Super Naturals Premium Aquarium Substrate brand as a whole are that their substrate won’t alter the pH or increase the carbonate hardness of your water column. Furthermore, no paints or dyes were used in the products. Last but not least, you can also use this brand to set up brackish, saltwater and terrarium tanks in addition to a freshwater aquarium.
Cons
Since the Moonlight Sand grain size is only between 0.25 to 0.75 mm, the substrate can easily be kick up into the water column by your fish or during a water change. The sand can then be sucked into your filter, which may cause issues.
With that said, we never have any issues with the sand with our Fluval 306 External Filter. Even if the sand gets sucked up into the containers, the small particles never cause any problems to the components within, which is still running strong over many years of constant usage.
If you want to be extra cautious, we recommend avoid putting the substrate anywhere near your filter intake.
How to add Moonlight Sand to your tank
To find out how we add the substrate to a new tank, you can follow this guide. To add the sand to an existing tank, you should follow these steps.
Recap
The CaribSea Super Naturals is an excellent brand as they provide natural looking substrates that won’t change your water parameters. The Moonlight Sand we got is great for our bottom dwelling fish and helps keep our water parameters pristine as decomposing organic matter won’t get stuck in it.
Since the sand will easily get into your filter, we recommend that you keep your filter intake as far away from the substrate as possible.
If you are interested, you can purchase the CaribSea Super Naturals Premium Aquarium Moonlight Sand Substrate with this link on Amazon. (#CommissionsEarned).