CaribSea Super Naturals Jungle River Aquarium Gravel, 20-lb bag

I wanted a more natural looking substrate for my aquarium to make the plants and decorations pop but I also wanted something finer than typical gravel but not super fine sand to make it easier for a couple of loaches I recently rescued to burrow. This is great. It is sand, but it's a coarse grain. I rinsed it in a bowl at about 3 cups at a time. It felt like I was panning for gold! Lol After I was finally done and added it to the aquarium with a couple gallons of water I saw it was still dirty. I added more water and used my gravel washer to syphon the dirty water out. I add 2 gallons of water and let it sit overnight since it still looked murky. Sure enough, it settled and was clear the next day. I put a small plate in the tank with a ceramic mug on it and started pouring water in. It worked like a charm. The water flowed out of the cup and onto the plate without disturbing the gravel/sand or decorations. It takes longer to clean this than standard gravel but I think the end result makes it worth it.

I've used caribsea substrate in my cichlid aquariums in the past and I love that it comes with beneficial bacteria.