Black sand

[ChrisB]

Anyone ever use that black sand, I see Vivid always post pics with it has nice contrast.

 

[MatthewScars]

Racist.

 

[ChrisB]

lol

 

[rsinanan415]

..

Racist.

Lmao

 

[KathyC]

Black sand looks great until....you have critters and worms that live in your rock that munch on the rock and leave little bits of it all over your black sand...and in time it looks like heck.

 

[Reefcowboy]

Black sand looks great until....you have critters and worms that live in your rock that munch on the rock and leave little bits of it all over your black sand...and in time it looks like heck.

I respectfully disagree, ive had only black sand in my tanks and even with time, they hide much better detritus than white sand does. At least to my liking. In my new set up, even through the diatom phase the tank looked cleaner than it would with white sand. I had the substrate covered with brown algae, and still the tank looked enjoyable to look at. I like that with time coraline grows and your substrate becomes a mix of black and purple that is indeed really cool. You will not have the natural look of the ocean as you would with white, but IMo you get a much cooler reef with neon colors poping much more.
Here is a pic of my old 20 gal nano, which had all kinds of critters and anything else you can name:



With the blues on, much cooler pop of corals



My current set up



I guess at the end its all a matter of taste, but after i tried black sand in my tanks thats all i kept until now.

 

[vio]

I respectfully disagree, ive had only black sand in my tanks and even with time, they hide much better detritus than white sand does. Actually, with time coraline grows and your substrate becomes a mix of black and purple that is indeed really cool. You will not have the natural look of the ocean as you would with white, but IMo you get a much cooler reef with neon colors poping much more.
Here is a pic of my old 20 gal nano, which had all kinds of critters and anything else you can name:



With the blues on, much cooler pop of corals



My current set up



I guess at the end its all a matter of taste, but after i tried black sand in my tanks thats all i kept until now.

i guess you're right


Cool,nice tank also, i think is good to avoid the brown algae to ?!

 

[oh207]

I guess at the end its all a matter of taste, but after i tried black sand in my tanks thats all i kept until now.

You know what they say once you go black...

For what it's worth, I had black pebbles in my freshwater setup and I liked it. I wanted a more natural look for my saltwater setup and decided to go with white.

 

[Reefcowboy]

i guess you're right


Cool,nice tank also, i think is good to avoid the brown algae to ?!

Thanks, what i referred to as brown algae are actually diatoms, which are a not really algae, but bacteria. As you know its almost impossible to not go through that peak when you first set up your tank...
Ive had white sand set ups and dont get me wrong, they make it awesome too...i like them and appreciate their look

 

[ChrisB]

I respectfully disagree, ive had only black sand in my tanks and even with time, they hide much better detritus than white sand does. At least to my liking. In my new set up, even through the diatom phase the tank looked cleaner than it would with white sand. I had the substrate covered with brown algae, and still the tank looked enjoyable to look at. I like that with time coraline grows and your substrate becomes a mix of black and purple that is indeed really cool. You will not have the natural look of the ocean as you would with white, but IMo you get a much cooler reef with neon colors poping much more.
Here is a pic of my old 20 gal nano, which had all kinds of critters and anything else you can name:



With the blues on, much cooler pop of corals



My current set up



I guess at the end its all a matter of taste, but after i tried black sand in my tanks thats all i kept until now.

I heard that it blows allover if you have hi flow in the tank ?

 

[selkoner]

All my tanks have live black Hawaiian sand It makes all the colors pop out more.... I love how it looks... Also if you have a magnet you'll get some pieces of rock from the volcano

 

[JonnyJ]

a reef should constantly have good flow and should be actively "turkey basted" to suspend the detritus and loose particles from your rock. (However you do it is fine)

If having a perfect sand bed is one of your concerns and its going to detur you from actively suspending detritus then maybe its not a good idea.

Within time that black sand is going to end up looking like a mixture of the two.

If your ok with that, go for it.

 

[Reefcowboy]

I heard that it blows allover if you have hi flow in the tank ?

Absolutely not true. Its exactly like white sand. I know there is a really fine type sand that you must avoid, but the ones ive used are caribsea hawaiian black.
Its the same grain size as regular white sand. I have 2mp40's at 75% in my tank and there is no sand floating anywhere

 

[ChrisB]

a reef should constantly have good flow and should be actively "turkey basted" to suspend the detritus and loose particles from your rock. (However you do it is fine)

If having a perfect sand bed is one of your concerns and its going to detur you from actively suspending detritus then maybe its not a good idea.

Within time that black sand is going to end up looking like a mixture of the two.

If your ok with that, go for it.

I am just putting in a small amount for looks , Just front of tank to avoid dead spots under rock etc.