Black sand, whats the deal????

[grubsnaek]

exactly that! whats the deal with black sand??? i hear its not worth it cause of the beneficial bacteria that can not grow in it.
i am going to be setting up a 29g nano/grow out tank with a 15g sump. so i wanted to know the reasons why black sand is not a good choice. cause in my mind i know its not worth it. (actually trained my self to think that, and i dont know the real reason. so thats why im asking!) but i want to use a shallow black sand bed.
and in the sump do a DSB with say mirical mud or some other type of live sand,live rubble rock and different types of macro....
can someone help me out with this????

 

[salty gal]

I personally LOVE my black sand. .... but I love things out of the normal. I have things growing in the sand bed. If you look closely at the picture, you'll see the little white lines in the sand bed of "things" growing.
Also ... it really makes your items in the tank "pop".
Take a look at mine: (I know ... I have an outbreak of stomatella ... millions of them! That's the white dots all over the place!)
Attachment 212552

 

[flricordia]

The bacteria will grow on any thing. You just heard wrong is all. The only problem with black sand is that it does not reflect light so if you have corals they will not recieve as much lighting as they would with white sand. But if you have good lighting it would not matter.

 

[grubsnaek]

my lighting will be 150w of VHO and another 150w of halide. so is that enough for say softies and some LPS
edit: i know the lighting is enough for the actual corals. but with possibly using black sand on this project. is 300w of VHO/halide enough for a DT with black sand in a 29g

 

[ilovemytank]

I always heard that black sand was a pain to keep clean. Not that it gets "dirty" but that it even the tiniest specs of anything makes it look dirty. Kind of like a black car shows off smudges in a way a white car wouldn't. I don't know that this is a fact but this is what I always thought. I also think clean black sand is amazing looking, I just wouldn't want to be the one caring for it. I say go for it !

 

[grubsnaek]

Originally Posted by Ilovemytank
http:///forum/post/2822400
Kind of like a black car shows off smudges in a way a white car wouldn't.

i manage a professional detail shop that has 5 locations at 5 well known dealerships on the east coast of jersey. ive been managing there for almost 9 years...so i understand that statement

 

[dmv]

I use black sand love it ,

 

[natclanwy]

One other issue with using black sand is it has no buffering capacity. Black sand is silicate, and the sand that is generally recomended for marine aquariums is agragonite which is calcium based sand and will help buffer the PH. I used silica sand in my tank though and it has been fine.

 

[grubsnaek]

well this is why i figured to go with a DSB in the fuge.
if i make the choice to go black sand and it dont work out, i will just switch. it wouldnt be that hard, i have sand with live rubble and macro in a rubbermaid bin now just sitting there....

 

[grubsnaek]

and what do you guys do to keep the sand bed looking clean

 

[petjunkie]

Bacteria will live on anything, mostly in the live rock. There's worms and pods all over my black sandbed no problem. I wouldn't recommend any sand sifting fish as it's very coarse. Buffering...again by the time your sandbed does any buffering your entire tank would be dead due to levels being so badly off. I have it in one tank, basically the main problem is rock breaking up or white sand sneaking into the tank and making it look like doody.

I siphon mine weekly so it always looks nice. For white sand I always have used larger sized so this sand (tahitian moon) is a lot finer than I like, a lot flies into my rear chambers and get siphoned up, blows all over the place, maybe not good for a high flow tank.

Same tank just 1.5 years ago with white sand, I've really changed the livestock, lol, duncans are the only same coral

 

[grubsnaek]

i mite go with it. and as far as siphoning it. do you ever have to add more sand. or you only really get the stuff ontop of the sand

 

[petjunkie]

I haven't added more yet, it's been up with black sand maybe 10 months? There's a decent amount in there though and I try to keep it out of the siphon obviously but you always loose some during water changes.

 

[natclanwy]

Your sand and LR buffer your water on a continuous basis, add buffer to an empty tank and your ph will increase or decrease and hold for a long period up to a few days. Add buffer to a tank with a reactive substrate like aragonite and it will buffer the PH back within a few hours. Sand has a huge surface area so a majority of the buffering taking place in your tank is done in the sandbed.

 

[johnnyd]

Originally Posted by natclanwy
http:///forum/post/2823004
Your sand and LR buffer your water on a continuous basis, add buffer to an empty tank and your ph will increase or decrease and hold for a long period up to a few days. Add buffer to a tank with a reactive substrate like aragonite and it will buffer the PH back within a few hours. Sand has a huge surface area so a majority of the buffering taking place in your tank is done in the sandbed.
Nature's Ocean bioactive makes a black beach reef sand and it says it buffer's affects PH etc. also Arag-Alive makes a sand called Indo-Pacific black sand which says its silicia free and also buffers and affects ph. those statements where on the 2 docs website, so i took it as they were refering to each sand including the black sand.

 

[grubsnaek]

2 docs. thats great
i will look into both of them

 

[natclanwy]

I'm not convinced on the Natures Ocean, the description is bunched with their other aragonite sands. The indo-pacific sand if you look at the description on their website is white aragonite sand mixed with black volcanic sand which is inert. Black sand is usually a volcanic sand, I have never heard of or seen a black calcium based sand and I'm not sure where the black color would come from.
Either way high quality silica sand is fine to use, I use it myself. You just won't have the buffering capacity of aragonite and it is just something to keep in mind.

 

[grubsnaek]

even though i am looking at a possible black sand bed, i know my slef. so with that said, i also break down and do whats best for the aqurium. so a reagular said bed is possible...

 

[petjunkie]

Your ph would have to be around 5.0 for your sand to do any buffering, at which point everything would be dead.

It's a nice myth that's well spread around but that doesn't make it true. The ph has to drop ridiculously low in order to dissorve aragonite. If we needed sand to do our buffering how would all the bare bottom tanks be surviving? My levels have always tested out fine and very close to my tanks with regular sand.

 

[snakeblitz33]

You don't really have to have this sand or that, however, the only sand you need to stay away from is any sand that has silica.
All substrates can harbor live bacteria and other micro-organisms. The more surface area that bacteria can live in, the better it is to break down waste.
Black sand is awesome if you want a change! I really want to set up my 240 with black sand, if I were to do it over again!!