Black Sand?

Anyone used the Carib Sea tahitian moon Black sand? (not that tahiti has black sand)

The LFS actually has live cultured black sand as well.

 

Not all sand is white...

See, white sans comes from coral. Black sand comes from volcano puke.

Depending on the age of the island from wence your sand comes, your color may vary.

The good thing about white or near white sand is that you will get reflectance from it, increasing the efficiency of your lights.

Black sand, while cool, eats up light.

Cheers,
Ray

 

I agree this could be a perceived problem :, but
most of spectral analyses I have seen of the various bulbs and lighting types only examine the light coming from the fixture itself and either have no sand in the tank, or don't comment on it.

The same theoretical risk could apply to heat as black tends to absorb more heat than white, thus the tank might run hotter.

The black sand does make the corals stand out more brightly because it provides a nice contrasting background color.

 

You might not get the same buffering from black sand either....but supplements could take care of that issue

 

Is this sand widey used? if it is from volcanic rocks (such as pillow lavas) it may have a quite high metal content, which in the sea wont have any effect but in the confines of a tank that may be different!!

Only a thought!

 

Great stuff everyone. Without knowing the chemical make-up of the sand, calcium carbonate and no additional heavy metals, I wouldn't take the chance.

 

thanks everyone I'm going with startight up ls instead of the black.

 

When I visited Hawaii last year I saw THE MOST AMAZING tank in Maui Aquarium. It had black sand with nothing but yellow tangs! The contrast was enough to make me swear I would make one myself some day!

 

hmm but the black sand will make the fish and corals look brighter because our eyes will not be drawn to the white glare i think... my 2 cents

 

Exactly.. The tangs yellow apeared to be crisp yellow against the black!