Openion needed on changing to Black Sand

[Doherty]

I currently have carib sea aragonite live sand, I was thinking of swapping it out and replace it with a fine black sand.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+10741+7324&pcatid=7324

Was going to purchase this one above, or one similar.

I have a seen a number of FTS on the boards with the black/gray substrates. And they look very sharp, and i wanted to do the same.

I know by loosing the aragonite i loose the slight buffering aspects it has.

I have also heard some black sands tend to be magnetic, I would like to stay away from that type if possible, is anyone familiar with the one that i listed above?

Any pros/cons to this type substrate that i should take into consideration prior to making the switch.

Any brand you guys/gals recommend.

 

[Rob]

think about water flow

if you need alot of flow you could end up with a sand storm unless you can find a sweet spot for your power heads with this fine sand. Not that I have had this sand but I read that it tough to keep that clean black look too....I had to change out my sand due to needing more flow, my sand was all over the place....something to think about....

 

[SkinnyPete]

I used this same sand in a 30g mantis tank. I don't recall having 'magnetic issues' with it. I did end up changing it out after a couple months because I ended up not being pleased by the look. You know how black cars look dirty really quickly? Same thing with the sand. I found that it just looked dirty most of the time - anything not black on it sticks out like sore thumb as apposed to tan sand where the things that tend to fall on sand blend in with the actual sand.

Not sure if that makes sense but it's something to think about.

The tank is actually in my avatar but, I'm not sure you can see the sand.

 

[tunaman]

Carib sea makes a dark grey to black colored substrate i believe most petsmarts carry it and i believe it might even be an agronite based substrate i currently use that in my tank wish i still had the bag to tell u exactly what it was and i found no ill effects from using this sand other than the absorbtion of light rather than the white sand reflecting it. Ill try to find the link of the sand for you.

 

[tunaman]

http://http://www.caribsea.com/pages/products/aragalive.html This is the stuff hawaiian black

 

[KJB]

I am cycling my tank right now. It has about 1 1/2" ( 20lbs) of fine black, and then I added another 1 1/2" of Argonite black LS (20 lb). The LS actually has a lot of tan and crushed coral, shells, etc. On the LS I went with med. grit. it sits nicely on top of the fine black, and I have blended thenm together a bit alond the glass, etc., to make for some very interesting looking substrate. I also left some of the fine sand for adding on top of the LS in spots, for added dimension. I may be able to post pics tomorrow. Seems like adding the black LS over the fine stuff removes the down side of straight black fine sand. JMHO

 

[cakemanPA]

I have had my FOWLR tank up and running with a mix of the CarribSea black (which is a mix of black and grey) and the Haitian Moon sand. I love the look after several months. It does blow around some but so does my fine white sand.

 

[fishindude]

I would stick with white. Black does look cool but I think it is something I would get tired of in a little while IMO. White looks more natural too (also IMO).

 

[wsonner]

Keep in mind that the "usual" black sand on the market is silica based and not aragonite which is calcium based. That's not bad, just different.

Wes

 

[Behrmon]

I'll be using this in the new tank.

Not really as Black as Dark Grey.

mmmm... Mag, yummy!

http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/GrayCoast.html

 

[Doherty]

Thanks for the feedback everyone! I will let you know what I decide to do....... I do like the grey coast, thanks Behrmon