Black Sand??

[9supratt4]

Does anyone use black sand? Was thinking about using it in my rebuild.

If so, any pics??

 

[reefsandrotts]

I I use balck sand and love it makes corals on the sand bed really pop...
only downside it doesnt buffer the water

 

[jgraz]

I used it in a nano. Loved it for about 1 month. Then I couldn't wait to get rid of it. The one I used was a bit more course then sand. I can't think of the exact name though. Trapped a ton of detritus, and was a pain to clean. There may be some pics of it in my nano tale of tank thread.

 

[redfishbluefish]

A couple years ago I remember posts about black sand containing a ferric (iron) component and therefore your mag-cleaner picked it up and potentially scratched your glass.

I don’t know if it was one brand or all brands of black sand, and whether it is still true today, but it is one thing I’d be checking out.

 

[jgraz]

A couple years ago I remember posts about black sand containing a ferric (iron) component and therefore your mag-cleaner picked it up and potentially scratched your glass.

I don’t know if it was one brand or all brands of black sand, and whether it is still true today, but it is one thing I’d be checking out.

For what it's worth. The sand I used would always get caught up in the mag float. For whatever reason.

 

[NyteGTI]

x2 I have tahitian moon sand in my FW setup & it's definitely got something in it that makes it stay on mag cleaners.

 

[albie611]

x3 for the mag floats.... sand gets caught all the time and i learned the hard way that it will scratch the glass.
still like the look but you have to be extra careful

 

[Hawkeye]

A couple years ago I remember posts about black sand containing a ferric (iron) component and therefore your mag-cleaner picked it up and potentially scratched your glass.

I don’t know if it was one brand or all brands of black sand, and whether it is still true today, but it is one thing I’d be checking out.

hey paul - that was me...its in my tale of the tank from 4 years ago...LOL.

http://www.njreefers.org/showthread.php?61766-Hawkeye-s-AGA-120&p=573008&viewfull=1#post573008

I wrote an email to Dr. Ron Shimek about it and he explained to me that the black sand manufactured will sometimes have iron compounds. This makes it attracted to magfloats.

Anyways - I've had black sand for about 4 yrs now. It does help make some of the corals and clams etc pop. But I don't clean my tank with magfloats anymore, I use the long kent thing-ys with the blade. Works great.

I also believe you can find black sand that does NOT have the iron component. Regardless, take a mag float like I did in the pic above and test the bag.

Here's where black sand really makes a difference:

 

[18fisher]

yea i have had same problem with black sand sticking to my mag float put alot of marks on my 22018fisher