# Petco Aquarium Gravel



## Pigeonfish (Jun 23, 2011)

Today, me and my partner went to Petco because they had received two Bettas as a gift, we got two nice tanks for them plus some white aquarium gravel, and a few of their "river" stones.

Everything was fine except the gravel. We literally spent an hour hosing and rinsing the gravel, and it still had some sort of powder on it. We tested it out in one of the tanks and the water was cloudy, it almost looked like milk was poured into it. No matter what we did the gravel still made the water terrible.

We decided to leave the tank without the gravel, and just put the big river stones.

It was only 3 dollars, so I guess we got what we payed for, but why would Petco sell their gravel like that?


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## Big Dog (May 17, 2010)

It is just cheap gravel.


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## Tiburon (Jun 27, 2011)

Good thing you did'nt use it!! In time it won't even be white anymore


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## Nitlon (Jul 10, 2011)

Try to avoid colored/painted gravel when you can (was the gravel colored, or naturally white?). It tends to dissolve easier and can actually mess with water quality and raise the pH, at least in my experience.

Though I feel compelled to say that I got gravel for all of my tanks from Petco at some point, and I've never had any problems with cloudy water...though I've never tried white gravel.


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## Pigeonfish (Jun 23, 2011)

Nitlon said:


> Try to avoid colored/painted gravel when you can (was the gravel colored, or naturally white?). It tends to dissolve easier and can actually mess with water quality and raise the pH, at least in my experience.
> 
> Though I feel compelled to say that I got gravel for all of my tanks from Petco at some point, and I've never had any problems with cloudy water...though I've never tried white gravel.


I never had problems with gravel. I guess it was painted white... but some of the gravel just broke apart into pieces anyways. It was just terrible quality. It's my partner's first experience with tanks... so now they want to do everything natural. *r2

Which is great because I was trying to convince them anyways...


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## Kayceekins (Dec 29, 2011)

I have the black gravel from Petco. I got in in October and it is already starting to fade. I find it odd that underneath the paint, it is all kinds of weird colors. Kind of like they just took the left over gravel and put some different paint on it. Oh and my gravel did the same thing, but when I left the tank alone for a couple of days with the filter on, it cleared up. But basically, I will never buy painted Petco gravel again.


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## ArtyG (Jun 29, 2011)

I am using Petsmart's black gravel in three of my tanks with no problems and no color change. The price is right on the 25 lb. bags too.


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## ArtyG (Jun 29, 2011)

Petsmarts 25 pound bag of their Topfin brand is listed at $16.99 on their website but I'm sure I paid less , perhaps on sale.


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## Tommyz44 (Jan 3, 2012)

ive used the petco stuff as well (dark blue, and the dark blue/light blue bags) never had an issue with cloudy as everyone said probably the paint. But i had to wash mine for a while as it seemed like i had expoxied peices of paint that just kept floating no mater how much i mixed!


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## Envision (Jul 13, 2012)

I always order my substrates online, rather not take a risk.


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## Raymond S. (Jan 11, 2013)

Here is where the "mom and pop" pet shops come in handy. I am now trying out Eco-complete(black) and have not had it in long. No dust, cloudyness but
that is all I can say at the moment about it. I just got back into aquariums and the whole world has changed since I was in it as a child. I read rave
reviews about the ability of Pure Laterite to grow plants and lots of good reviews about Eco-Complete also so I bought both and put a 1/2" layer of the clay
under a 1-1.5" layer of Eco-Complete. Out in the woods it's natural, in a flower pot it's not. In the lake it's natural, in the aquarium it's not. Same issue as
far as using up the nutrients...eventually you will need to supplement. I know this is to be about cloudyness so the mom and pop stores buy sand blasting
sand number 4 and put it into small plastic bags and sell it for the aquariums. You only need rinse it a small amount to clean it. Some of them also buy
the 25lb bags and break it down to two lb bags for about $3. Takes about two of these for a ten gallon. Locate a shop that is not a chain store. It may
be cluttered and dingy but they have things you don't find in the other stores. I live in a city of 35,000. Small buy any standard. But it happens that the
mom and pop here is owned and run by an ex school biology teacher. Best pet shop in 100 miles.


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