CaribSea Super Naturals Blue Ridge Aquarium Substrate, 5-lb bag

This gravel is the darkest natural gravel I’ve been able to find. No, it’s not quite as dark as it appears on the picture, but it has a lovely neutral palate of browns that works well in my tank. If the picture was more accurate I’d give it 5 stars. Other reviewers mention the dust—yes it is DUSTY. But hey, it’s natural gravel. I expect to have to wash it. Overall I’m quite happy with it and my fish seem happy, too! Much happier than when I had them on fake black-colored gravel. Over time it was flaking and hardening the water. This gravel is a huge improvement!

This gravel has great tones and textures to achieve a natural scape paired with sand, and various stones. It isn’t uniform in the sense that the stones aren’t all smooth, which I love. It aids in the natural appearance.

This gravel is NOTHING like shown in the picture. After washing it before putting it in our tank it still had so much dust in it. It was never ending. I wouldn’t recommend this gravel for any water aquarium. We now have to take all the water out of our 75 gallon tank just so we can get rid of the residue that was in the gravel.

The photo makes you think you're getting clean, smooth pebbles. What we got was TINY, broken, like they just came out of a rock crusher for cement gravel. Like the consistency of crushed shells. It would be ok if you were expecting that and would look nice theoretically if you want tiny, sharp gravel. We wanted smooth pebbles as pictured. Chewy gave us a refund.

This states that it has the good bacteria and it does not at all. Nor did the packaging look the same as what is shown in the pictures. Now we are fighting to save our fish from the bacteria not being in this as promised. DO NOT GET THIS FOR THE BACTERIA.

Well, these are pebbles that can be used for an aquarium so in that sense they work. They were well packaged (no leaks or tears in the bag). Unfortunately, the rocks were not the color pictured but much lighter. Also these are the dustiest aquarium gravel I have ever used. Even after extension washing they were still kicking up dust.

I love the quality and aesthetic of the Caribsea Super Naturals substrate line so I picked up a small bag of the Blue Ridge Super Naturals, hoping it would closely align with Seiryu stone to serve as rubble to transition from the stone to the substrate. Job done! I love the mix of warm and cool colors, and the variety of sizes and textures. In the photo, I've got a blend of Caribsea Super Naturals "Peace River" fine gravel and "Sunset Gold" sand for the substrate.

It reminds me of chunks of aquarium salt. Not like whole pretty pebbles.