Changed my sand from black to white

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Dary421

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Joined
Oct 21, 2010
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Originally when I set up my tank I thought that having a black sand substrate would be kinda neat and different,...well after seeing how it looked after everything was set up and running it kinda gave me the appearance of being kinda dirty looking even if it was clean,..also the grains of sand turned out to have more of the size and shape of small gravel which I'm sure would trap any debris that it would encounter.
The more I looked at it the more I wanted and wished that I had gone with the white substrate from the start,..so,.figuring it's better late than never I decided to add some white sand over the top of the black " gravel" ,...I followed some forum leads and ask some buddies about adding it and the consensus was to go ahead and do it.,because of the out lay I have multiple caves and tunnels thru out my tank so I had to figure out just how to try and cover the exposed black sand without screwing everything up.
I used a small plastic water bottle loaded with sand to fill in the larger areas and I filed up my trusty turkey Baster with sand to get the small intricate areas. Of course the tank clouded up for a half an hour or so but it settled down pretty quick and came out crystal clear within an hour ,...it's been running now like this for 24 hours now and so far all the parameters seem up to par.
I really didn't have any good before pictures but managed to find a couple that would give you an idea,...the new white sand pictures were just taken,..I think it looks a lot better now,..hope you agree,...and I hope I didn't screw anything up,...this is the one time that my fish store buddy said that he'd recommend using " live" sand in place of the dry sand....got my fingers crossed!
 
does your triggerfish ever try to eat your corals?
 
hackteck said:
does your triggerfish ever try to eat your corals?

Amazingly both triggers show no interest in the coral at all., my ex butterfly fish thought I put em in there for a thanksgiving feast., I love the mushrooms so I hope they spread out and look pretty soon.., thanks for the thumbs up., you too carey
 
Amazing how much brighter everything looks with the white sand. Keep in mind black absorbs most of the light it comes into contact with, whereas white reflects it :p
 
Sarcothelia said:
Amazing how much brighter everything looks with the white sand. Keep in mind black absorbs most of the light it comes into contact with, whereas white reflects it :p

Excellent point,....thank you
 
10x better wow what a differnce and to think i almost put black sand sure am glad i didn't.
 
LOL. Is it that bad? It did make your tank look a bit dark but I was hoping for some contrast since the tank is soo tiny
 
carey said:
LOL. Is it that bad? It did make your tank look a bit dark but I was hoping for some contrast since the tank is soo tiny

Well I can't make you NOT do it,,.but if you did I CAN tell you how to cover it up with white sand again ..... I was hoping for contrast too,...kinda like those Mexican " Elvis" paintings on black velvet,... But it's got just the reverse effect,...the difference in the coloration of my triggerfish since the white sand outlay is really amazing ,I think sarcothelia was right with the reflected light,...they seem to be illuminated now
 
I think i may re visit the black sand idea. ;-)

Thanks for the heads up, just the pictures are enough to make me rethink....
 
Great looking tank! I have always liked the white sand but there are some tanks with black sand that look amazing.

Still, I like it better this way!
 
Smitty said:
Great looking tank! I have always liked the white sand but there are some tanks with black sand that look amazing.

Still, I like it better this way!

Yes, I'm sure there's a lot of tanks out there with black sand that look great ,.. unfortunately ,I don't think mine was one of ' em .... But on the lighter side ( no pun intended) ,...I like the white sand look better too.
 
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