Different Colored Sands?

[Thomas01]

So I'm making my first tank and I want to use black sand to make the color of my fish and coral pop, this one in particular...

https://www.marinedepot.com/CaribSea_Arag_Alive_Hawaiian_Black_Sand_20_lb_Live_Sand_for_Saltwater_Reef_Aquariums-CaribSea-CS00797-FISSLS-vi.html

I'm going to get a 20 gallon IM Nuvo.

Will this sand work with sand sifters? For example, I plan on having a sand sifting star and a sifting Goby, a diamond watchman perhaps. How many inches of sand do you recommend for optimal, sifting? Any help is awesome!

 

 

[tgore]

The color of the sand won't particularly matter, it's just a personally preference. Although I would reconsider the sand sifting start with the tank size, it could clean the entire sand bed fairly quickly and then starve, not even taking into consideration you have another inhabitant that it is competing for with sifting the sand. Just my opinion though.

 

[KNelson]

I had my sand sifting star 8.5 months and there was a noticeable decrease in its size.  I would not recommend one.  I haven't noticed algae on the sand since I sold him back to the LFS.

[Clown79]

The colour ov the sand is not a concern. The size of the grains is important.

 

I had 1 caribsea black sand and the grain was too large detritus trapped in it even with weekly aggressive vacuuming.

 

I had to switch out the sand because it was full of hair algae.

 

Never had a problem since.

 

Some black sand is also magnetic which poses issues with magnetic equipment.

 

 

Most starfish aren't appropriate for nano tanks, they simply starve from lack of food.

[Thomas01]

38 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

The colour ov the sand is not a concern. The size of the grains is important.

 

I had 1 caribsea black sand and the grain was too large detritus trapped in it even with weekly aggressive vacuuming.

 

I had to switch out the sand because it was full of hair algae.

 

Never had a problem since.

 

Some black sand is also magnetic which poses issues with magnetic equipment.

 

 

Most starfish aren't appropriate for nano tanks, they simply starve from lack of food.

What size of grain would you recommend for a watchman goby to be most effective. Also how deep would you recommend the bed be?

[Aurortpa]

Black is stunning but +1 @Clown79, I had black once and I noticed it was magnetic and even worse had pieces rusting in it.    

[Lugmos12]

59 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

The colour ov the sand is not a concern. The size of the grains is important.

 

I had 1 caribsea black sand and the grain was too large detritus trapped in it even with weekly aggressive vacuuming.

 

I had to switch out the sand because it was full of hair algae.

 

Never had a problem since.

 

Some black sand is also magnetic which poses issues with magnetic equipment.

 

 

Most starfish aren't appropriate for nano tanks, they simply starve from lack of food.

What sand do you use now?

 

I saw this really pretty fine sand on a youtube reef video but would hate to have sand blowing all over the tank.

[FISHnChix]

I bought the sand you mentioned . It is way to course for a reef tank imo..  it almost reminds me of that gravel in freshwater tanks.. and clown is right it gets super dirty. When I clean it It will get sucked up and clog my hose too.. pisses me off.. go with something smaller grained sand.  But not the finest sand either bc it gets blown around.  Look at special reef grade from caribsea

[Thomas01]

2 minutes ago, Lugmos12 said:

What sand do you use now?

 

I saw this really pretty fine sand on a youtube reef video but would hate to have sand blowing all over the tank.

I don't have a tank, i'm making my first one.

[Thomas01]

3 minutes ago, Weikel said:

I bought the sand you mentioned . It is way to course for a reef tank imo..  it almost reminds me of that gravel in freshwater tanks.. and clown is right it gets super dirty. When I clean it It will get sucked up and clog my hose too.. pisses me off.. go with something smaller grained sand.  But not the finest sand either bc it gets blown around.  Look at special reef grade from caribsea

Good to know, I made this thread because black sand looks good, but you never see anyone use it. So I figured it was shunned by the community.

[Clown79]

On 7/4/2018 at 6:26 PM, Weikel said:

I bought the sand you mentioned . It is way to course for a reef tank imo..  it almost reminds me of that gravel in freshwater tanks.. and clown is right it gets super dirty. When I clean it It will get sucked up and clog my hose too.. pisses me off.. go with something smaller grained sand.  But not the finest sand either bc it gets blown around.  Look at special reef grade from caribsea

That's exactly what it reminded me of. The old freshwater gravel that comes in rainbow colours. Lol.

 

 

 

 

I've used caribsea Hawaiian black, Fiji pink, aragmax aragonite dry, and ocean direct live.

 

 

I like the caribsea aragmax select grain size, the ocean direct is very fine with lots of big shell pieces it works well, but my favorite is Fiji pink.

 

https://caribsea.com/aquarium/

 

That gives you the grain sizes.

 

Black looks good and corals do stand out but it makes the tank appear much darker and smaller.

 

If they made the black in a smaller grain, I'd use it.

 

I like my sand bed depth no more than an inch. It's purely there for esthetic purposes for me.

 

 

[jamescstein]

On 7/4/2018 at 6:30 PM, Thomas01 said:

black sand looks good, but you never see anyone use it.

Some of the black sand is slightly magnetic. Gets stuck on in equipment with magnets.

 

It also surprising looks really bad when it isn't clean. Kind of how a black car looks dirty much quicker than other colors except maybe white.

[Reefermadness2011]

Be careful had black sand stick to glass cleaner n scratch my glass once