black sand in a fish only tank

[Steve_B]

I have some Tahitian Moon Sand on order. Its properties are reported as being inert, thus no buffering ability. That's no big deal to me, Ill just add buffer when I need to, if I do, whatever. I only have 1 very large piece of replica coral in my 70 gallon corner tank that is 30" tall. I don't think that the distance from the return being so far should disrupt the sand and blow it around, that's my opinion.

I did a search and it seems that the only people that have a problem with it have reef tanks.

Does anybody have an opinion regarding a problem with my type of set up? It will be nothing but fish and no real coral? It was an aggressive tank at one point but I'm going to stock it with non aggressive fish which it should have been in the first place.

Thanks in advace,

Steve

 

[rajkovich207]

NON calcium based sands are usually made if silica which will cause massive brown out phases. Every tank will experience these stages, but silica will intensify it greatly because that is what they eat. If that doesn't bother you then you made an acceptable choice! Gl and happy fish keeping!

 

[Steve_B]

"œMassive brown out phases"

I've never had one, just the slow growth of brown nuisance algae when I get lazy and let the nitrate go off the scale and hit well over 80 PPM. That's not because of a bad test kit. I know because I use it in my little "œexecutive JR. starter tank" I moved up to that from my 225 in my garage for sale. It was just too hard to maintain. The Fish in there were so tough I could have probably hit them with a hammer and be all right, but gave them away and that's an entirely different topic. So, my big 70 is empty now and 10 gallon with 2 clowns. My "executive JR," running for over a year and just about no maintenance is a beautiful thing. A stand that I can actually store stuff in, not a big 3,000GPH set of pumps and all of the ancillary equipment. A little hang on back bio wheel filter for my 10 gallon.
I don't want anymore hassle, just a simple set up, thus my question.

 

[rayn]

Are you questioning the brand of sand or the color? Brand I have no idea, color I have done black. My leaf fish tankhas black sand in it just for the color pop it provides. I do notice the poop or whatever laying around more though. Either siphon it out or turn on a circulation pump to mix it up into the water column and net it out.

 

[SushiGirl]

I had that sand in my first reef tank. I never had a brown-out, or really any algae, in that tank. It showed all dirt (poop) and all the little bits of liverock detritus, though. If you keep it shallow & since it's a fish-only, you could easily keep it vacuumed.

 

[Steve_B]

I had that sand in my first reef tank. I never had a brown-out, or really any algae, in that tank. It showed all dirt (poop) and all the little bits of liverock detritus, though. If you keep it shallow & since it's a fish-only, you could easily keep it vacuumed.

Yea, I have read several times regarding it showing crap. Is only makes sense because it is so fine that it won’t allow unwanted things to sink through it like the crushed coral I use now. There is black sand that the size of the grain is much larger allowing unwanted debris to fall through. I suppose I could mix some of that type and the problem may not be as bad. I just wanted sand and black would look nice in my tank that has a black rear surface. Kind of like the sand would blend into the black giving the appearance that it would look infinitive, no end. I also thought that sand is a more realistic substrate than the crushed coral i have now. I guess if it doesn't work out i just switch it back.

 

[Steve_B]

BTW, my post regarding nitrate off the scale is true in my 70. Too long of a story to get into. I'm starting from scratch in my 70 after I tear it down and start all over. The 225 is being sold and this 70 and 10 gallon is enough after a huge disaster in that 225. Things were going perfectly for years then it all went to hell. 5 PPM nitrate or less after hundreds of gallons of water changes from my two 55 gallon food grade containers that I used from my RODI.
Zero TDS from a commercial unit I use. I had it, gave my last remaining fish away, it was over and done, a total nightmare.

 

[namxas]

What a lot of folks who want a darker substrate do is mix a bit of white in with the black sand (kind of a salt-n-pepper thing). This seems to show dirt much less and most folks have been much happier with that look in the long run. We see this a lot in the SH community.