Black Sand?

[torbett]

Was wondering if black sand (from the ocean) would work for my tank?

 

[Dakafall]

if it's from the ocean, i'd say yea, it'd work fine

 

[Daemonfly]

It shows off detrius a bit easier, so many find it has a tad bit more maintenance, but it works fine otherwise.

 

[Bebo77]

yeah on a small tank its cool... but on a large tank its a pita to keep clean

 

[oddiseus]

I also heard that it does nothing for the buffering capabilities in your tank. That is the only drawback I see to black sand, other than that it is really nice to look at.

-Odd

 

[wav3form]

From all my research, I've found that due to a nano's size, a buffering substrate like argonite wont really do much. Also since you need a low ph around 6 or so for the calcium to dissolve, it's not going to do you much good anyway. You'd have to have a dsb for any real effect and with a nano, that's not gonna happen unless you fill up a container with a lot of sand and use it as a sump.