Black Sand

[Brough5754]

Hi I'm kinda new,
Just had a thought that tanks look better in my opinion with black sand. Is it safe to switch from regular to black.
How would I go about doing this. Any input is helpful.
Thanks in advance.

 

[BallinCrew10]

I also like the look of black sand, but has your tank cycled yet ? Disturbing your LS will cause a mini cycle. You might want to save youself the trouble, and your fish/inverts/corals their lives, and stick with your ugly,conventional white sand lol.

 

[Fishguy2727]

I hate white sand I have black sand in my tank and love it. That with the black background makes everything more colorful and stand out better. I use Estes' Ultra Reef. It is not a calcium based sand, it is silica based with a polymer coating so it won't cause silicate problems. I do use oolite sand in my fuge though so I still get the benefits of the ideal calcium based sand. Don't worry about disturbing your live sand, it isn't worth much when first starting out anyways. If you want black sand it is now or never.

 

[bianca90]

Great tank!

 

[cmor1701d]

If your tank is already cycled and has livestock replace it in sections, doing about a ¼ of the sand bed a week.

 

[kurtyboh]

@fishguy that is an impressive looking tank!

 

[Brough5754]

My tank is cycled iv got fish in it too. No coral

 

[kurtyboh]

If your tank is already cycled and has livestock replace it in sections, doing about a ¼ of the sand bed a week.

Hes referring to the nitrifying bacteria in your sand bed by replacing only a portion of it at a time youre allowing it to gow on the new before getting rid of all the old.

kurtyboh

 

[carey]

Sorry to butt in it seems like the right thread to ask.

What if I'm upgrading from say a 29g to a 55g, can I replace all my sand then at once? I'm moving everything else over but was thinking about changing the substrate since I'm moving it all anyway.

Thanks guys

 

[Fishguy2727]

IME in a reef effectively all your beneficial bacteria are in the live rock, not the sand. In an older mature tank your sand bed will be valuable biologically, but in a young tank I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[0o.Kelsey.o0]

You can replace all the sand when you upgrade your tank Carey. It is actually not recommended to use old sand when moving since you stir up all the gunk in it, your tank isn't that old though so I'm sure you could use what you have now if you decided to.

 

[carey]

Cool, Thanks kelsey

 

[Zer0]

I'm not one for black sand, at all. But Fishguy, your tank is pretty awesome. Your tank definitely pulls off the black sand. Most tanks don't. (IMO)