So I ended up sowing around 200 seeds last friday, just under 7 days later half of my F. tigrina have sprouted. I'm very excited as this is my first attempt at growing from seed. Here's a photo, they're still very tiny. A few of my F. aurantiaca and some lithops have popped up too! I'll take some more photos once they actually grow a bit more.

All I can see is fine sand (too fine ) raising seeds is a worthwhile pastime though, that's for sure.

Really? This was the coarsest I could find at my local nursery.. (only a layer on top, underneath is a mix of soil, sand and perlite)

wtg bobbly, the little green blobs must be exciting to see. I attempted my first go at raising from seed this year but had no luck.

Thanks Vicki. 15/20 of my F. tigrina are up now, hopefully they all make it through the next few weeks!

Course river sand or propagating sand is the go. I find it's better to mix it with something though. Like a bit of cactus potting mix for instance. Fine sand can become a real problem as it tends to compact over time and doesn't allow proper drainage etc; What you have done looks fine though for what you are propagating.

Oh yes it's mixed underneath, there's just a layer of 2-3mm of sand on top though since I read that was helpful for the mesembs I've planted. They were also soaked from the bottom upwards so I don't know that drainage will be such a problem..
In spring I will be giving a few cacti a go - where do you suggest I'd get coarser sand from? As I said, this seemed to be the coarsest they had at my local nursery. I have some perlite too, but I'm not sure if that'd be a suitable substitute for sand...

Bobblybook. As Trigonus said your after river sand, look in the building/bricklaying section of your local hardware store. Bunnings has some that's pretty good.

Perlite is good. But it tends to float when bottom watering so it's not so good put on top. Just mix a bit in to your normal cacti mix, it's great for drainage.

River sand is also what I use.

Just don't confuse builder's sand with brick layer's sand (aka fat sand) as fat sand is the worst thing you could try to propagate in.

Builder's sand also appears to be totally different to river sand. Bunnings sell small expensive bags of river sand in the garden section called propagation sand (about $8 per bag).

Although you can get the exact same river sand at a nursery in quantity for a fraction of the price.

I have best results in a straight river sand mix, as it is less prone to fungal infections than soil mixes.

Goodluck Bobblybook

Thanks Lanna. So far I've had no fungus or anything sprout up and the faucaria's in the photo above are now about 1-2cm tall. I've got about 25 of my lithops sprouted and everything seems to be growing well, I will post an updated photo soonish.