FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Palmetto Pool Filter sand and it is very good, the grains are a bit on the smaller size but it works.

HTH Pool Filter sand is by far my favorite and the grains are a tiny bit coarser and uniform. I've attached pictures below. You can get HTH Pool Filter Sand at ACE Hardware.

HTH is cheaper at ACE - 22.99 while Palmetto is 40.

Pictures: Left is HTH, Right is Palmetto.

Thanks for sharing Carnies! At what ratio are you mixing that in? Are you using perlite with the peat moss and sand?

Just my visual, "from a picture" opinion, but the Palmetto appears to be "cleaner". Some of the grains in the HTH sample "seem" to be opaque and possibly not silica whereas pretty much all the Palmetto grains appear translucent, quartz-like grains. But, the darker grains of the HTH could be (naturally) stained quartz. Again, just looking at the photos this is my inexperienced opinion. The difference in price between the two is definitely notable!

Thanks for the comparison article, @Carnies !!!

DUB-C wrote:Thanks for sharing Carnies! At what ratio are you mixing that in? Are you using perlite with the peat moss and sand?

The ratio you see is about 2:1 Peat/Sand. For this comparison I didn't mix in perlite but when I pot up plants I usually do.

Intheswamp wrote:Some of the grains in the HTH sample "seem" to be opaque and possibly not silica whereas pretty much all the Palmetto grains appear translucent, quartz-like grains. But, the darker grains of the HTH could be (naturally) stained quartz.

You aren't wrong, I checked a few sources and it says:
Active ingredient cyrstalline silica - QTZ (Quartz) 87-99.9%. I'm testing it on a few plants just to be sure.