Black Substrate

leahfiish · Oct 21, 2018

Definitely share the results!

FishingLovingSons · Oct 23, 2018

leahfiish said:
Definitely share the results!

Will definitely do so! After I pick my son up from school this afternoon we'll set it up; he loves little projects like this.

Does anyone think there is any reason to set a light up over this test? I have an old white/blue led from a Marineland kit from years ago I could utilize... not powerful by any means whatsoever. Simple toggle switch White-off-Blue.

EDIT- is there any reason to or not to keep some small fish in with this experiment? I don't want to a) be cruel to the fish nor b) add any other uncontrollable factors to the test. Plan for now is to have nothing in the tank but heater, hob, sand and SW.

slowngreen · Oct 23, 2018

I've used black a few times without any negatives.

slayerhellfire · Oct 23, 2018

once you go black you don't go back per say lol

FishingLovingSons · Oct 23, 2018

slowngreen said:
I've used black a few times without any negatives.

Awesome tank! Which brand/manufacturer did you use for the substrate?

slayerhellfire said:
once you go black you don't go back per say lol

Wow! Great looking tank! Same ?, what brand substrate is that?

slowngreen · Oct 23, 2018

FishingLovingSons said:
Awesome tank! Which brand/manufacturer did you use for the substrate?

Its been several years now so I'm not positive but I think I used Petco Imagitarium black. I never had any magnetic problems.

FishingLovingSons · Oct 23, 2018

slowngreen said:
Its been several years now so I'm not positive but I think I used Petco Imagitarium black. I never had any magnetic problems.

THANK YOU!!! That was the other brand I used in FW setups. It seems- from what I’ve read at least- the designer brands like Tahitian Moon and Hawaiian whatever have had instances of bits attracting to algae scrapers. I set this test up this evening to see if there were any ill effects from the Nat Geo brand.

I had a 40b full of Cory’s with the black Imagitarium brand sand and if it’s soft enough for them it should be fine for any marine fish/invert. In fact the barbels on those Sterbai were longer and thicker than any Cory I had before.

Sorry if I seem a little fanboy-ish right now but the fact you’ve had that tank up for more than a year tells me all I need to know for my next tank; so glad you popped by and shared! So happy right now lol

Looks like you have it around 1”-1.5” deep there?

slowngreen · Oct 23, 2018

@FishingLovingSons that tank is long gone but it was up from March 2013 to March 2014 then was upgraded to a 75g which I ran the same, but new, sand in for another year. I had 40lbs in the 40b and 40lbs in the 75g.

Heres the 75g.

FishingLovingSons · Oct 23, 2018

slowngreen said:
@FishingLovingSons that tank is long gone but it was up from March 2013 to March 2014 then was upgraded to a 75g which I ran the same, but new, sand in for another year. I had 40lbs in the 40b and 40lbs in the 75g.

Heres the 75g.

Oh, ok I gotcha. Those coral colonies are wonderful... we’re they grown out of frags in the original 40b with the Petco sand or did you start with many polyps of each?

slowngreen · Oct 24, 2018

Most were frags and small colonies to start. Everything grew like weeds under the 4 bulb t5 setup i had.

FishingLovingSons · Oct 24, 2018

slowngreen said:
Most were frags and small colonies to start. Everything grew like weeds under the 4 bulb t5 setup i had.

Thank you for your replies and info! Probably go with Imagitarium in next tank knowing it has been tested and approved for a reef setup. Since I already setup the Nat Geo test and ordered the Triton Labs kit I will finish what I started and share the test results.

Anyone following/viewing this thread I will update with the first Triton results in a couple weeks. Tank was setup yesterday (Tuesday 10/23/18) so first sample will be taken 11/6/18.