Black Substrate - pros/cons and photos?

[Shoob1e]

I love my black sand ill always have it in my tanks from now on, mine does have quite about of,white specs in it

 

[Joseph Pagnotta]

We have it in my daughters fowlr tank.

It's only been up a few months but we love the different look of it. Needed to change up from white sand being this is our third tank in the house.

With TANKED playing on the Tv

 

[smokin'reefer]

With TANKED playing on the Tv

Don't judge me. Lol

 

[Forsaken77]

Apparently, Nature's Ocean Bio-Activ Live Aragonite provides "enhanced" buffering abilities. Can anyone confirm this is true?

Has anyone used this stuff? I can't find out what the grain size is.

I read that Natures Ocean has a lot of magnetic particles that cling to a magnetic scraper, scratching the glass.

I currently have the Arag-Alive Hawaiian Black in my 93 cube with no magnetic issues. Sure it looks cool, but imo the grain size is to big. It traps a lot of detritus. I'm in the process of setting up my 180 and bought 270 pounds of Fiji Pink Arag-Alive because of the smaller grain size. I also plan on mixing in a 40 pound bag of crushed coral and spread it out.

The Hawaiian Black has a LOT of silt in it. After 2 years I'm still vacuuming it out with water changes. It also has big red chunks of lava rock, though they're few and far between.

I believe the Indo has a lot more white in it. If anything, I would probably go with a inert type of black sand, maybe for freshwater, and mix in some crushed coral for buffering. Because I didn't get any buffering from the Hawaiian Black. And adding in a white Aragonite kind of defeats the purpose of black sand. It already has white aragonite in it and adding more will be like a 50/50 mix.

I would pass. I learned my lesson.

 

[jkimballer29g]

Any one ever mixed it with other material? I have sand & coarse coral. I have also been considering the addition of the Black... Does any one have any thoughts ?

 

[raddog]

Love my black sand natures ocean

 

[Itsnayjay]

I do ok in this 40 gallon breeder.

I can’t vacuum the bottom to save my life I got the smallest grain of substrate I could find. 20 lb bag and another 5 lb bag.

Sorry for the crappy quality but I've had my tank on black sand for about 3 months and haven't had any problems. Corals getting great from small frags (can't see it in the picture but I can post close ups if you need more proof). Same as any other sand so far

 

[David Foley]

Who here has used black sand? Particularly either of these types:

Hawaiian Black (0.25 - 3.0 mm)

Indo-pacific Black (0.25 - 5.0 mm)


I am thinking about creating a tank with a Lembah Strait/Sulewsi Indonesia theme. The sand there is mucky, black and made up of volcanic matter.


I know the main issues with black sand are the lack of buffering abilities, as they are not calcium based. Has anyone every tried mixing it with some calcium based substrate? I was thinking about mixing it with some of the Caribsea Special Grade Reef Sand, to provide some calcium buffering.


Another issue is the grain size which has a wide range, up to 5.0 mm which is much too large. Could I use a strainer to sort out the extra large grains?



If you have used black sand in your tank, POST A PIC! I want to see what it actually looks like in real life.