Black substrate anyone?

[APBorisov]

I'm getting ready to "restart" my 75 gal., and I was wanting to know if anyone out there uses black substrate (perhaps to imitate some coasts of Hawaii)?

My originial thought was that it would add some great contrast and be something different as opposed to just white.

My only concern is that it might look stupid; As in, "My First Fishtank" by fisher price with WILD substrate colors!

Let me know your thoughts, and I would love to see some pictures from anyone who uses black. TIA.

 

[CrystalAZ]

There have been threads on this. The consensus is usually that it looks REALLY cool until it gets dirty then it shows gunk a lot easier than plain ol' white sand.

Crystal

 

[psimitry]

Agreed. If you keep it to a 1" or so SSB and you are absolutely anal about keeping it clean it looks amazing.

One thing that a lot of people don't often think about though as a compromise (and I think it looks almost as good and definitely out of the ordinary) is a mixture of black and white - like 2/3 white and 1/3 black.

 

[addicted_2_reef]

I had it in a 10 gallon an after a week it looked terrible. I'm about to move everything into my 65 and I can't wait just so I don't have to look at it anymore. I does look great if you keep it really, really, really, clean.

-Brian