I was thinking about buying black sand for the bottom of my tank…i am at about the year mark in my tank, with fish, soft corals, inverts, and rock (i also skim) …would replacing all the sand at once potentially hurt the tank by removing some of the things i want in the tank???
[quote=“longballz84, post:1, topic:728”]
I was thinking about buying black sand for the bottom of my tank…i am at about the year mark in my tank, with fish, soft corals, inverts, and rock (i also skim) …would replacing all the sand at once potentially hurt the tank by removing some of the things i want in the tank???[/quote]
If I have ever given advice that should be heeded, this is it…
Black sand WILL look like crap in three months. No matter how much CUC, no matter how good your maintenance, it will look like crap. Everything that goes unnoticed on white sand accumulates and silts it up. Even if you siphon it off, all the fish/coral poopies are going to make it look bad.
That is all.
Joe :BEER
PS- Don’t do a complete swap out unless you are prepared to deal with the tank cycling completely again. Could definately cause a crash, all those bacteria going bye bye at once. Plus, you will lose a large part of your micro CUC (pods, worms, etc…).
Well, That sounds like the straight Poop to me!
If you want more info on Black sand pm firecrackerbob. He ran a black sand tank for a while and could tell you the pitfalls. I say if you like the look go for it. You will have to dedicate more time to maintenance and removal of nitrates from what I have heard from reefers who have used it.