Jet Black Sand

i have black sand and LOVE it!!!! the only thing i do different than if i had white sand is to put sps's on a bigger surface of LR to help with the light. i have GSP's Kenya tree's and a ton of mushrooms on the sandbed and they do very well there, i have never had a light issue with my corals.

i dont think i have pics of my tank in my gallery but i started a thread that you can look up under my name if you want to see pictures.

 

I have all 3 options in my tanks. In my reef tank I have the Fiji Pink sand, in my mantis tank I have all black sand, and in my predator tank and my small 12g tank I have 50/50. I thought I would like the black sand because I thought it would not show the algea as much...but instead it turns greyish color.

Plus I would caution you this on black sand...it is soooooo sooooo very fine that it can cause problems with some of your equipment if you are not careful. When I plumbed my predator tank I added 40 lbs of black sand and 40 lbs of fiji pink sand and mixed it up. Well the tank ran for a couple weeks and I decided to get a bigger sump and had to replumb it. I ended up breaking the bulkhead and had to replace it. Well I had a hard time getting a secure fit because somehow some black sand got into the overflow and kept getting under the bulkhead. I had to redo it in order to get a good seal.

Here are some pictures of the black sand and half/half. Ignore the algea, Sunday is tank day and I have been very lazy today!!!

here is the black sand that is in the mantis tank.
DSC00070.jpg - Image - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

here is the predator tank that has 50/50
DSC00072.jpg - Image - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

oh and I should add I did mix the sand up before the water was added...so the sand did not get in the overflow that way!

 

i have black sand...95% of all posts ive read so far in my experience are wrong. I have no more algae or no harder time with corals than i did with white sand. How many people grow their sps on the sand? If anyone who wants to keep sps wants to be successful at it they are gonna buy a fixture with lots of light. My sand doesnt blow around like nuts, its no finer than the white sand. It doesnt trap heat in, and it is natural...no one took the white sand and spray painted it black. Its natural depending on where in the world your looking. I like my black sand, I keep sps and have kept clams in the sand with no problems. I also have 608 watts of t5/mh over my 90 too. I will say that in my opinion to make the tank look nice the swimming space has to be plentyful and the tank looks better with alot the bottom showing. When u pack the rocks together and give the tank no depth the black sand makes the rocks look packed and clumped. Heres my tank:





Good luck with your decision, im happy i rolled the dice.

Dennis

 

luvreef23:

white reflects most light which in turn keeps things cooler, hence, the polar cap. black absorbs light and makes things warmer. its simple physics. no matter what you house in the aquarium white sand would reflect better than black sand. the main light output and reflective light are completely different.

 

Thanks for all the input guys!! Thank you schackmel and lovreefs23 for posting those pictures, thats a big help!!

The black sand will undoubtedly absorb heat and light. But as others have noted, that doesn't necessarily mean the tank will over heat or that there will not be enough light for SPS corals to grow. I should have mentioned I have a 4 x 96 watt PC light fixture to start with, and I was planning on keeping few if any SPS corals right from the start. But I'd rather not have my choice in sand limit my ability to stock my tank later. I can always upgrade the lights, its going to be hard to change out the black sand if I don't like it.

The black sand I found is 0.5 to 1.5 mm in diameter. Is that significantly smaller than other "blends" of aragonite sand I see for sale? I have two Koralia #3's to circulate water in my 65. Will this create a sand storm and problems with getting sand in my filter system?

 

I tried this a while back and was dissapointed that it was more dirt brown than black

Good luck

 

I love my black sand. I also got it from TPP it really makes the colors pop.

Pic: http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr118/faqbch99/tank-rebuild/IMG_9769.jpg

I just rebuilt my whole tank so i have a bunch of pics here.
RenegadeReefers.org • View topic - Re-aquascaping Rich's tank

Good luck

 

Hi RJW, so you got that same black sand from That Pet Place in your tank. Those pictures look great, thank you!!

 

There is WAY more to more to the argument of Black sand absorbing more heat then white sand. If you place two squares in direct sun, one black and one white, then YES the black plate will be hotter and the white plate will reflect more light. HOWEVER in a reef tank, there is a TON of water movement to carry any of that heat away. Also, remember that in order for the sand that is submersed in water to heat up beyond what the water temp is, it would have to first heat up all the water! That is NOT going to happen.

Furthermore, reflected light, even from a white sandbed is insignificant in intensity to make a difference. If you are counting on reflected light to keep your corals alive you have much larger problems.

Dark colored sand will NOT increase your tank temperature, nor will the lack of reflected light impact your corals growth. The only difference you have to plan for is the buffering, my sand is Calcite, not aragonite. There is a debate as to how effective aragonite is at buffering anyway....

Oh, and here is a recent image of my tank, with the Gray Coast sand:


I have to take some new ones... That one is from September. I added a diamond goby and he has been really going to town on that sand bed, and it has clouded the tank a bit.

 

I say go for it! Build it the way YOU like it.