Petco Black sand

[awood0909]

I’m wanting to do black sand in a 40 breeder I’m setting up. Anyone ever used the Petco imagitarium sand or should I just use the Carib sea?

 

[r20crazy]

imagitarium sand is ceramic coated white sand. it will never be very good 'live' sand as it has no pores for bacteria to grow on, and the color may fade or turn purple from coraline algae. Caribsea black sand (and most others) is volcanic... which means iron (aka rust and magnetic) and has other metals in it. it is possible to have heavy metals leached into your setup... and iron stuck to any magnetic glass cleaners and pumps..

 

[Crustaceon]

I think either will be fine. Some will claim black sand leeches stuff, but with regular water changes anything that leeches will be removed and even black sand will eventually become inert.

 

[RxeefeRx]

Don’t do it. I had the Caribsea black sand in my 40 gallon breeder. Initially everything was doing well. About at 6 months after the cycle everything started to slowly die. I could t figure it out. All the parameters were in order. I took my water to my LFS Incase my test kits were bad. Everything was good by their tests. I increased water changes from 5 to 10 gallons every week and the few corals that were left stopped dying but they weren’t thriving. I did a triton test and it came back with heavy metals. I took apart all my pumps and didn’t see anything. I replaced them anyways. Did 3 50% water changes, corals stayed ticked off so i did another triton test. Still high on heavy metals!!!!

On chance when cleaning the glass I noticed that the sand was magnetic. I started to read about other people having trouble with black sand. I removed it and replaced it with white sand. Everything started perking up. It took almost 2 months but now I’m starting to see polyps on my leather coral and growth. I put in a test Montipora 2 weeks ago and it’s still going strong. Previously it would shed all tissues in about a day or 2.

 

[I’ma tempermental coral]

Soooooo I run black sand... these are a few my torches

This is maybe half of all my zoas/palys and it’s an old picture right after mounting... like directly after mounting...(notice the open polyps after my husband had just manhandled them) and have growth, also pictured is a cherry setosa that’s growing well that’s never disappointed in the PE department.

Next we have a 6 inch blue Cynarina. On black sand... she literally grows by the day... this picture was taken for POTM this girl is easily 7-8 now.

And last but not least how about a 23 plug rack full of sps with more lps in that black sand...

just to add a little more to my point. On that frag rack is a 3 inch under branch from a massive Walt Disney colony. Key word there UNDER BRANCH. Very susceptible to any and all things that may melt it over night. Still have it. coloring up nicely and getting used to his new home on the rocks.

While I understand people tend to have issue in tanks with black sand but I see far more successful reefs with black sand than I hear, see or read about tanks that have issues that can be proven the black sand is the direct cause. so I say if you want black sand and you think there may be an issue there are PLENTY of ways to mitigate this. Best thing that comes to mind, ATS or over sized refugium. Green stuff loves its iron!!!!

 

[I’ma tempermental coral]

Sorry, one more thing. All those pics were taken with an iPhone. Some threw dirty glass, with no filter or fancy editing.

 

[RxeefeRx]

Those are nice pics. Have you checked to see if your sand is magnetic? My sand almost every piece was magnetic. Maybe there are bad batches?

 

[Anihiel1]

I also have the caribsea black sand for probably a year or more? I love it. My snails love it. My pods love it. It's just the perfect weight and particle size to stay fluffy without trapping a ton of detritus, and we all know circulation is key. Yes it's slightly magnetic but all real volcanic rock has ferrite. If you believe the old wives tale of it leeching something into the water- #logic: Hawaii has some of the most beautiful coral reefs in the world as well as abundant marine life. And it's ALL volcanic sand..

 

[RxeefeRx]

I also have the caribsea black sand for probably a year or more? I love it. My snails love it. My pods love it. It's just the perfect weight and particle size to stay fluffy without trapping a ton of detritus, and we all know circulation is key. Yes it's slightly magnetic but all real volcanic rock has ferrite. If you believe the old wives tale of it leeching something into the water- #logic: Hawaii has some of the most beautiful coral reefs in the world as well as abundant marine life. And it's ALL volcanic sand..

That’s true however that iron gets diluted through the entire ocean and also used by organisms. Our tanks are much smaller closed system and if the rate of leaching is greater than the amount being removed then it will start to build up to toxic levels. I believe that is what happened in my case.
When you say yours is slightly magnetic if you place a magnet down how many pieces of sand would be attached? When I placed a magnet down it would be encrusted so much that you could t see the magnet.

 

[Anihiel1]

Yes the magnet would be encrusted but it depends on the strength of the magnet also. The neodyne magnets we use for everything would pull a nail from across the table.
Bear in mind that this sand is ground up volcanic rock. One of the hardest substances on the planet. It does not leech as easily as you would think. I would look to another cause, perhaps a bacterial or fungal buildup in the sandbed.

 

[sfin52]

I would not do black sand. I have seen too many problems with it. Take a magnet and run it through the sand. If you get pieces sticking to the magnet walk away

 

[NashobaTek]

I have caribsea Hawaiian black sand in my tank and love it. It's not magnetic, it is a mixture of small white particles and larger black grains. I love the contrast of the fish, sand and coral skeletons and rock.

 

[I’ma tempermental coral]

Those are nice pics. Have you checked to see if your sand is magnetic? My sand almost every piece was magnetic. Maybe there are bad batches?

I would be more apt to believe there are some batches that are more ferris than others yes. And like you mentioned in another post the oceans surrounding Hawaii dilute the large magnitude and make sure there are little issues. That said I would be willing to go in on it possibly being one of the facts as to why the reefs in Hawaii and surrounding most tropic volcanic islands are as beautiful as they are. The iron in the water keeps healthy populations of macro algae in turn making cleaner water for the corals. I suspect this equilibrium takes millennia to stabilize though. In our reef tanks where we are the stabilization factor, like I said before, if you were afraid the black sand was leaching too much or just want to stay on top of it the methods of doing so are simple yet effective. Combine a few poly pads with an over sized refugium and a solid, maybe slightly overkill water change regiment. If you still feel they are to high add in an ATS. But I warn, as I have issues with low nutrients a system with more aggressive macro filtration could be even more troublesome. As it stands right now I have an over sized fuge, no ATS, and only run a poly pad if I suspect my son of something silly. But any time I’ve run a poly pad I have not gotten the iron discoloration in the pad. I have ran my magnet across my sand when I first read about black sand being bad juju and did pick up a few pieces and I to went off the deep end at first thinking it was gonna nuke my tank. Maybe it’s time to send in an icp and see what comes back?

 

[01xp]

My tank uses Hawaiian black sand and I live it. No issues been running for 3 months

 

[RxeefeRx]

this won’t be too scientific but I still have the sand. This is the dry side magnet to a jabao pump. I don’t know how strong the magnet is buts not very strong. I only touched the magnet to the sand. I did not run it through the sand.

I would be interested in what others people magnets look like when they also just touch the sand and bring it back up.

 

[I’ma tempermental coral]

this won’t be too scientific but I still have the sand. This is the dry side magnet to a jabao pump. I don’t know how strong the magnet is buts not very strong. I only touched the magnet to the sand. I did not run it through the sand.

I would be interested in what others people magnets look like when they also just touch the sand and bring it back up.

Wow!!!! Yea mine doesn’t do that!!! At all!!! Still. Can I ask if you’d be willing to try a little experiment with me?

 

[NashobaTek]

this won’t be too scientific but I still have the sand. This is the dry side magnet to a jabao pump. I don’t know how strong the magnet is buts not very strong. I only touched the magnet to the sand. I did not run it through the sand.

I would be interested in what others people magnets look like when they also just touch the sand and bring it back up.

Mine doesn't do that either.

 

[Anihiel1]

Mine does that. Whats the experiment....?
Also I hardly ever do water changes ...last time was a month or so ago when we had a lengthy power outage so I was changing out 10-20 % every 3 hours to keep everything alive. I do have an oversized canister filter, protein skimmer and UV.

 

[RxeefeRx]

Wow!!!! Yea mine doesn’t do that!!! At all!!! Still. Can I ask if you’d be willing to try a little experiment with me?

sure. It would be nice to know if my sand is the true culprit. I don’t want the same thing to start happening with the new sand.

 

[I’ma tempermental coral]

Take the sand and set up a nano 5 gallons or smaller just the sand and a easy diy ATS over the top draining back into the tank. Take a sample of the water at the start. Quick cycle, add a couple cuc. Once the ATS has started to take hold take another sample. After it’s ran for a while take the last sample. Test these sample with a basic iron test. See if there is an active change in iron levels as the ATS does its thing. Dosing nitrogen and phosphorus may be a necessity as well.