What black sand has worked for you?

[Tired]

I want to try black sand in my 5gal tank. Not too much, an inch or so sandbed.

Who's had luck with black sand, and what brand did you use? 

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

9 minutes ago, Tired said:

I want to try black sand in my 5gal tank. Not too much, an inch or so sandbed.

Who's had luck with black sand, and what brand did you use? 

I’ve heard that black sand is horrible for algae. I don’t know if that’s 100% correct, but it causes nuisance algae to grow bad

[Clown79]

I didn't and would never do it again.

 

It's a much larger grain and even with aggressive vacuuming, lots of cuc, I just couldn't keep it running well.

 

I had nothing but algae issues and only in the sandbed. I fought it for months with multiple weekly waterchanges, media, manual daily removal, vaccuming, urchin, nassaurius, conch.

 

I gave up, removed it all, replaced with white sand and never had an issue again.

 

It also makes the tank look smaller and dark.

White also helps reflect light.

[FlytheWMark]

I used Nature's Ocean reef sand in mine and LOVE it.  It is very much a different look to a tank and as others have said it doesn't reflect as much light.  I have had no real algae issues with it nor any magnetic issues that some have reported with black sand.  As @Clown79 stated though the grain IS is much larger but that hasn't been an issue for me.

[Tired]

Does nobody make a fine-grained black or gray sand, then? I do want a shrimpgoby/shrimp pair, and I'm guessing they might prefer something finer. 

 

There seem to be a lot of mixed opinions about black sand, and I'm guessing it's down to brand and source. What it's made of must be variable to some degree. 

 

Has anyone tried mostly white sand with a few handfuls of black thrown in? 

[Clown79]

31 minutes ago, Tired said:

Does nobody make a fine-grained black or gray sand, then? I do want a shrimpgoby/shrimp pair, and I'm guessing they might prefer something finer. 

 

There seem to be a lot of mixed opinions about black sand, and I'm guessing it's down to brand and source. What it's made of must be variable to some degree. 

 

Has anyone tried mostly white sand with a few handfuls of black thrown in? 

Caribsea mixed white and black. Grain size 0.25 - 5 mm

 

Hawaiian black 0.25 - 3.5 mm

 

There are 2 known all black sand, both are bigger grain. One is more magnetic than the other.

[Tamberav]

FYI the black stuff is sharp. Maybe not to us but it tends to cause injuries to mantis shrimp and their more delicate parts.

 

This may be a problem with a specific brand...not sure. Just be wary.

 

 

 

 

[FlytheWMark]

21 hours ago, Tired said:

Does nobody make a fine-grained black or gray sand, then? I do want a shrimpgoby/shrimp pair, and I'm guessing they might prefer something finer. 

 

There seem to be a lot of mixed opinions about black sand, and I'm guessing it's down to brand and source. What it's made of must be variable to some degree. 

 

Has anyone tried mostly white sand with a few handfuls of black thrown in? 

Yeah with my sand you would not be able to do the shrimp/golby pairing but I knew that going in.  

[Clown79]

14 hours ago, Tamberav said:

FYI the black stuff is sharp. Maybe not to us but it tends to cause injuries to mantis shrimp and their more delicate parts.

 

This may be a problem with a specific brand...not sure. Just be wary.

 

 

 

 

Agree. My 10g has lots of scratches from it. The nassaurius seemed to not be able to dig very deep either.

[Tired]

Hm, guess I'm stuck with white sand, then. 

[Clown79]

3 hours ago, Tired said:

Hm, guess I'm stuck with white sand, then. 

Its ultimately up to you. Some have success with it, others don't

[Lingwendil]

I've used the Black Diamond blasting sand from Tractor supply, as I had a ton left over from freshwater setups. The stuff flat out rocks in a planted tank but it's a bit too light as well as coarse  for a reef setup. I didn't notice any issues with it (the stuff is coal slag so basically glass and inert) as far as nutrients, but it is so light that it will get packed with detriturs fairly easily. I love it in freshwater but would hesitate to use it in saltwater.

 

 

I used some of the Caribsea hawiian black, and found that it was pretty coarse too. looked out of place honestly. Only ran it for six months but didn't like how cramped it made the tank look.

 

All black sand will make detritus and waste, as well as sediment purged by microorganisms super obvious. Easier to run it nicely in freshwater.