Black sand

[colinadam]

For the black sand owners, do you have any regrets? 

 

Does it really look dingy over time? 

 

I have heard some people say they got it and regretted it while others like it. 

 

Thanks! 

 

 

[Clown79]

I had it, looks pretty but it was a detritus collector, too big of sand particle, makes tank dark and appear smaller, bad scratches. 

[pgrVII]

47 minutes ago, colinadam said:

For the black sand owners, do you have any regrets? 

 

Does it really look dingy over time? 

 

I have heard some people say they got it and regretted it while others like it. 

 

Thanks! 

 

 

I didnt care for it much personally. It made everything just seem kinda dark in the tank. My thread has some pics with the various sands I've had in it if that helps heres the link.

 

It definitely had some magnetic property to it and just didnt sit well with me in general rather quickly after putting it in the tank. I now use tropic eden reef flakes and like it quite a bit!

[Sancho]

I love the look of it but found it to be super magnetic and would end up in any magnetic glass cleaner I had and scratched the hell out of the glass. 

[pgrVII]

1 minute ago, Sancho said:

I love the look of it but found it to be super magnetic and would end up in any magnetic glass cleaner I had and scratched the hell out of the glass. 

Yes this. My poor lagoon tank looks like an old great white shark. Big ol gouges from it clinging unbeknownst to me to the mag cleaner.

[Daniel91]

I love the look and have not experienced any magnetic issues - 

 

 

Most of my corals have a pop to em because of it - I do not run too heavy blues 

[Tamberav]

I don't care for it, shows snail poop and any small pieces or dust particles of live rock. Its' like white dog hair on your black pants 

[mcarroll]

On 7/15/2019 at 10:52 PM, Sancho said:

I love the look of it but found it to be super magnetic and would end up in any magnetic glass cleaner I had and scratched the hell out of the glass. 

As a matter of course I would suggest dragging a magnet through any new sand you have before adding it to the tank.

 

Some sand like river sand isn't processed that much.

 

Most sand has to be ground down from rocks, so finding a little bit of the grinding teeth in the sand is extremely possible and even likely. 

[TheNightmareReef]

My 3.8 Pico mantis shrimp tank had black sand until it got cooked. Looked great but not sure I’d do it for a more involved system. This was a purely RFA tank with a single mantis and whatever snails or hermits could survive for a few days until he found them so very little waste to clean up and even then it was every other day vacuuming the sandbed with a turkey baster to keep it nice and sparkly.