farkwar Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 I'm thinking of doing my display tanks in this. My first nano I did black sand, nature's way black sand. It was pure misery. Full of iron, stick to nano mag scratched my glass. Looked dirty all the time. So question, the Caribsea looks entirely different in texture and appearance in the bag. Anyone use it and have remorse? Anyone use it with Rave review? TIA Link to comment
jbb Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 I run it in both of my tanks. It is magnetic and the finer pieces will stick to glass cleaners and scratch glass. To prevent this I keep the magnet about an inch from the bottom and the use a scraper for the bottom portion. I like it because it doesnt get that "dirty" look that white sands tend to get, but the magnetic factor is a huge pita. Link to comment
Justin MD Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 another con of black sand is maintaining a nice pH/cal/alk balance. I found it annoying in my old 125g. Aragonite? works so much better. Link to comment
BigRed10 Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 I run it in both of my tanks. It is magnetic and the finer pieces will stick to glass cleaners and scratch glass. To prevent this I keep the magnet about an inch from the bottom and the use a scraper for the bottom portion. I like it because it doesnt get that "dirty" look that white sands tend to get, but the magnetic factor is a huge pita. +1. Pretty much sums it up Link to comment
Dan R Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 I washed my sand very well before I put it in my tank. So far so good. Link to comment
davidncbrown Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 Same experience as above. The sand stuck on our MP10 and under the mag float and scratched the tank... plus once detritus starts settling on it, it doesn't look so good... Link to comment
Mazzy21 Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 Is everyone who's talking about it being "magnetic" specifically talking about Carib-Sea Arag-Alive Hawaiian Black sand? I had it in my tank for a year (just changed it out one week ago) and it wasn't "magnetic" in any way. The grain size is bigger than normal sand, but small enough to still be sand. I particularly liked this feature because it doesn't pack down like fine sand and create a little nitrate factory. As far as looking dirty though, it'll look every bit as dirty as white sand; the only difference being that instead of a brown funk coating your white sand, on the black it looks like a tan dust laying on top of your black sand.As far as pluses and minuses go, the only minus over white sand that I found was aesthetically. The black sounds like a cool idea, but it really makes your tank very dark. It even affects the way the light hits the tank, making the blues VERY blue, and very dark, and the whites cause things to look washed out. I thought the problem was that I had a 'cheap' light, so I bit the bullet and bought a Radion. Nope. 100% of the difference is the way white bounces light and black absorbs it. Depending on what kind of tank you have, this can be expounded by having a black background which just makes it all look dreary. I have a BioCube 29 so it was black on black on black and honestly, it didn't look good and made me lose interest in my tank.Here is my tank with the black and with the new white. It's hard to get the full effect of the two colors just becaus once pic is of a cycling tank (empty) and the other has some life in it, BUT I hope this can still give you a general idea of the aesthetics. Both of these pics are taken with only the whites on. While it seems like the colors would come more alive with black sand, just the opposite seems to be true. Here's a second pic with whites and blues on - it only looks more dark/dreary. Link to comment
cindyp Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 i use this and haven't had an issue that i know of. i've been able to siphon and vac the sand easily as well, which is a real plus, since i have an 8g and feed my two fish daily. the sand has kept pretty clean for the 14 weeks i've had the tank, and i like the striking backdrop it provides at tank bottom for my corals. i have had no issues with my mag cleaner. but then, i only use it higher up, as things get a bit tight lower down closer to the sand, and i use a glass scraper for those tighter areas. here is a recent FTS: Link to comment
farkwar Posted December 8, 2014 Author Share Posted December 8, 2014 Googling "black sand" brings up my rant about it from '09. Like Hawaiian Black Vs Tahitian Moon, etc. I was thinking "damn, Bens tank looks awesome with the black sand." Wasn't even paying attention that it was his. Or that he suctioned it all out, for good reasons. Link to comment
davidncbrown Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 I think we used tahitian moon sand.. It was bad. Never again. Link to comment
lkoechle Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 I used Indo-Pacific Black in my4 gallon. I wanted black but got scared off by the bad reviews. The Indo-Pacific still looked very nice. I'd use it again. Link to comment
farkwar Posted December 9, 2014 Author Share Posted December 9, 2014 I think we used tahitian moon sand.. It was bad. Never again. I have enough black stuff in the room. I just ordered an Elos 120 with white stand. I'm going to put mahogany veneer on the white stand. The light is going to be mahogany now, not black aluminum as originally designed. The sand doesn't need to be black, after being reminded of all its flaws. One particle of iron in the sand will scratch the soft low iron glass as if it were cheese. Link to comment
farkwar Posted December 9, 2014 Author Share Posted December 9, 2014 Maybe I should just cover the whole bottom with acans and mushrooms. Link to comment
Mazzy21 Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Whether you decide to go with black, white, or something inbetween, I'd make sure the reviews you're reading are for the specific sand you are going to buy. Obviously all of us on here prove that there are many types of "black" sand. I can only speak to the Hawaiian Black Arag-Alive, not to any other that may be named that from a different brand, or even the same brand but a different black color. If you do go with black, though I've only used the one so I have a biased opinion I suppose, I will say that if I could have gotten white in that exact same grain size and texture (as the Arag-Alive Hawaiian Black by Carib-Sea) I would have. As far as easy cleaning and not packing down like most do, it is the best sand I've ever used. I just siphoned my new white for the first time last night. The grains are a little chunkier (I avoid sugar sand like the plague - the plague that it'll cause in your tank by way of nitrates! lol) and it was not as easy to siphon (I think because it is a more 'rock-like' grain than 'sand-like' grain) as the black was. Link to comment
cindyp Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 yeah, mine is caribsea hawaiin black live sand. i actually didn't even cycle. it was a transfer from 3g to 8g with some new live rock. i seeded the new tank with a handful of the old sand, and used all new sand again. tank's doing great so far. but i'm only 14 weeks in. Link to comment
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