here is the reply from CaribSea, and BTW they fixed an error on the web site as well.:
Answers:
TM is fine for planted tanks and is in fact very similar to some other materials such as 3Ms color quartz.
Yes it’s magnetic – it has large amounts of iron in it. It’s basically hematite.
I’m sure when the budget allows our little company to spring for new bags this is one we will change. Till then we – like everyone else have to make do and explain ourselves I guess.
Thanks,
Jud McCracken
Sales Manager, North America
CaribSea, Inc.
772-461-1113 ext 14
jud@caribsea.com
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Sent: Sunday, February 21, 2010 3:10 AM
To:
tech@caribsea.com
Subject: please, I Need Support
Good morning,
I purchased a bag of CaribSea super Natural Tahitian Moon black sand and found that there is a controversial information about it on the web site.
On the web page
http://www.caribsea.com/pages/products/super_nat.html in super natural section it is posted as Not suitable for planted aquariums.
But in the catalog on page 13 of the PDF Black Tahitian sand has "P" in the description which = to "Planted".
I know you offer a Eco-complete Planted on page 12 but i wanted smaller particle size that's why i went with sand.
Also when i ran a magnet over the unopened bag of sand I found it to be magnetic ?.
So basically i have two questions and a comment.
Comment:
Please make it more clear especially on the bag what substrate is inside because without visiting CaribSea web site it is hard to comprehend what particular substrate is good for.
Questions:
1- Is CaribSea super Natural Tahitian Moon black sand good for planted tanks or not?
2- (very important) Can you please explain magnetic properties of this substrate?
Looks like i may have to return this product and go with SeaChem black sand instead at least they make it clear on every bag what's inside unlike CaribSea which has a generic bag for 8 different substrates !
Thank you.
And hope to hear from you soon.