CaribSea substrate: white or ‘tan’

[User]

I bought 120lb of CaribSea seaflor special grade and 80lb of Fiji pink, expecting it to be a nice brilliant white that I see in the tanks of people who recommended it.

Now it’s in the tank- it’s tan. Definitely not white. And not a whole lot of pink in the Fiji pink.

Did CaribSea change their collection area? Is this something that’s happened in the past?

Not going to remove it, since it’s a non-returnable $220 purchase, a d the wife thinks it looks great, but I’m just a little bit disappointed it’s not as white as I was led to believe.

 

[hdsoftail1065]

I bought 120lb of CaribSea seaflor special grade and 80lb of Fiji pink, expecting it to be a nice brilliant white that I see in the tanks of people who recommended it.

Now it’s in the tank- it’s tan. Definitely not white. And not a whole lot of pink in the Fiji pink.

Did CaribSea change their collection area? Is this something that’s happened in the past?

Not going to remove it, since it’s a non-returnable $220 purchase, a d the wife thinks it looks great, but I’m just a little bit disappointed it’s not as white as I was led to believe.

I read some of the reviews before I bought mine and they had the same complaints. Even after reading the reviews I was expecting a little brighter and a little more pink but nope, it matched what everyone else said. After looking at our tank with black sand then going downstairs to the other tank I really do like the looks of the fiji.

 

[User]

That’s the bummer- the most recent reviews I saw said that it looks white and has great glow under actinics. I don’t think it looks bad, just not as crisp white as I wanted/expected.

 

[DWPhilli]

That is a bummer, that is what I was planning to get for the white look and glow. I was going to order online too, so now I have to rethink that

 

[User]

To be fair- I’m not running my reef lights yet (still need to build them) - I’m looking at it under 3500k led shoplights.

I’ll try to get a pic with better led’s, so if that makes it look better.

But it certainly wasn’t ‘white’ under full spectrum daylight in the sun when I was rinsing it

 

[naterealbig]

Funny, i was going to question the current lighting. Generally, the reflective properties of any aragonite sand is what makes it look bright white in most systems (vs the refractive properties of silica-type sand - which is much more drab in comparison).

The sand is reflecting the crappy spectrum of your shop light. [emoji17]

Once you get some quality lights over it, it will look much more like the bright white sand bed you are expecting.

Something else that will have a huge impact, is whether or not there is water in the tank.