Pics of tanks with black sand please.

[EnderG60]

I cant decide if I want to do black sand in the new tank, and search isnt helping.

 

Please post some pics of tanks with black sand, and if you have it let me know how you like it.

[Travis]

Here are two pics of my MiniBow7 with black sand.

[devilishbabe14]

I have black sand in my 29 and it was pretty expensive and i didnt like it at first but ive grown to like it. i personally prefer white sand because it brightens the tank a lot and is much cheaper. I'll post you some pics of it later on.

[Nateair]

what is the difference? or is it just color? Will a Goby still like black sand? i just bought a new tank and havent heard of putting black sand in, although i remember it in hawaii.

what are the pros and cons of each?

[devilishbabe14]

Well black sand is actually more like rock. its called aragonite and from what i understand it is volcanic rock. I dont think that a sand sifting goby could sift it because it is like little rocks. i have a yellow goby that does fine with it though, as does everything else. Although it does absorb more light due to the color.

[EnderG60]

see my only 2 worries were 1. That it doesnt buffer PH, and well seachem has some new stufff that does so no worries there.

 

and 2. that not having the bottom reflect light would lower the light levels in the tank and make the light you have less effective for the corals.

 

please post some more pics though. who was the guy that had that 10 or 15g with black sand that was veiwable from 3 sides and had that cool oragne plate?

[DarkXerox]

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/aug...04/aquarium.htm

 

Nuff said

 

 

I use black sand in my nanocube DX too and I just make sure that I add a little buffer every time I do a waterchange and there hasn't been a pH problem.

 

The nassarius snails, sand sifting conch, and other inverts have had no problems with it whatsoever. I also know that people keep sandsifting gobies with no problems either.

 

As for light reflection, I serioulsy doubt that the color of the sand will affect that since the photosynthetic parts of the coral are more likely to be angled towards the light source since even white surfaces have a very poor reflection rate when it comes down to useful light intensity.

 

In otherwords, try it if you want to.

[EnderG60]

thats the one.

 

yeah I think im gonna do it

[Travis]

I don't suggest black sand, it's way to high maintenacne and looks crappy, litteraly crap, if you don't keep it up.

[RegalFlush17]

Black Sand also does not reflect back the light. White sand is a wonderful reflector of light. The light is reflected back to the corals to make your lighting more effecient. Black Sand just absorbs the light, wasting it. Goodluck.

[EnderG60]

what do you mean by maintenance??

 

and someone made the point that all the corals are basicly pointing toward the light anyway. New tank will be mostly softies and will have a 150w halide and a single to dual 65w PC's

[gimmepoi]

yo travis...what kind of lights are those?

[Travis]

Sry for the simi-hijack EnderG60, but they are a 40w Satalite Light Fixture from Current. the 80w version will also fit on the MB7.

[EnderG60]

np still want to know what kind of upkeep he was taking about???

[Travis]

Well, when fish, snails, and crabs CRAP on the sand it is WHITE. It shows up verry easaly on black sand. but with white sand it dosn't show as easy. you have to siphon out the crap when you do water changes. I for one am getting sick of it so when I have my 20 Long set up I will be using white sand.

[EnderG60]

well how bad is it? I dont mind having a few white specs here and there. I actually like how travis' and george's tanks have a few specs.

 

I mean if its just gonna be a lite "dusting" that i can clean every month no biggie. But if its gonna do an almost total white layer type thing in a few weeks that might be a bit much.

[bigbenji]

Its going to be like owning a black car. You'll have to clean it twice every freakin day or everyone will see what a slob you are. Every single little freakin drop of anything thats not black will show up and make it look nasty. My new car is grey, hahahhaha.

[Tigahboy]

I agree w/ bigbenji....but i like to call the color of my car "silver" instead of grey. hehe.

[EnderG60]

well the tank is in my room, so i think they will know im a slob before they reach the tank:P

 

Yeah im pretty sure im gonna give it a shot, if all else fails I can mix in some white sand. Saw some guys 90 with a mix and it looks pretty cool as well and that would take care of the crap;)

[EnderG60]

Welp talked to a friend of mine at seachem and he gave me the low down on the stuff.

 

Yes it absorbes light, It will effect ambient light in the tank which will slightly effect any corals(even ones that point up at the light) But as he said if the effects are at all noticably different then with white sand you probly didnt have enough lighting to start with. So I think a 150W halide will sufice.

 

Also the seachem stuff DOES buffer Ph as well as any araginite sand. But any ph buffering sand does not have enough of an effect to be noticeable unless you have a 8" or more sand bed. So all you people whining about the ph buffering ablility, its another one of those if you notice a porblem in ph while changing sands the sand is not your problem.

 

and lastly the seachem brand is of a rather large grain...and me no likey.

 

So I then emailed caribsea about the tahian moon black sand.

 

They told me that yes it will absorbe a good bit of light(but as before no biggie just slap more light on there) I was also told the tahian moon sand is silica based and there for not a good idea for a reef system, and suggested the Indo-Pacific sand.

 

So I have emailed them back to get a bit more info on that.

 

Ill let ya know what i find out

[Travis]

Silicate based eh? maybe thats why I've always had a slite issue with DIATOMS!?!?!?!?!?!?!? WOW, it's a good thing that I am switching to the "real" stuff .

[EnderG60]

ya know im actually kinda curiouse about that now. because I use rodi water in both my tanks and i have a silica test which shows nothing on either tank, but i get a good bit of diatom alge on the sides in like 2-3 days.

 

any chance you would test your tank for silicates?

[EnderG60]

Well got another email from carib sea. Yeah the indo pacific is a live sand, and since its 1/2 regular sand it will buffer ph and do all the same stuff live sand will. But its a 50/50 mix of white and black which is not what im looking for. And I couldnt find out what the black stuff in the 50/50 mix is...so yeah im guessing its the tahian moon stuff mixed with regular live sand.

 

I aslo found out the Supernatural Black calcite sand is the tahian moon sand.

 

So since thats basicly all the black sand I can find, I have emailed my friend at seachem again to see about what stuff would absorb silicates, and thus might allow me to use the tahian moon sand.

 

anyone know of any other brands?

[Optik]

Have you seen this? And do you play Counter Strike?

 

http://www.petluvers.com/estesultrareefmar...esandblack.html

[EnderG60]

Nop havent seen that, but I am looking into it right now. and no I dont play counter strike..why?

 

Also just got an email back from seachem and teh silica based sand is not a problem. It will not desolve in the tank. And any silicates that are there are from either die off or tap water, and either way phosgard will remove it. And since i already run phosgard..yay

 

but i am looking into that other stuff as well now thanks optik