Jet Black Sand

GREAT heads up Pack!!!!! karma to you good sir. Ive never heard of that, I kind of wonder why! :

 

When I said Salt and Pepper, I had no idea there was a product with this name.

It's just what me an Nikki called it.

 

Thats not the products name actually. But it is the black/white mix. I believe the mixes name is Jamaican Beach or something like that. I will have to do a search.

 

Has anyone actually MEASURED an increase in tank temp by using black sand? How about an observed increase in Algae growth?

Those are examples of anecdotal evidence, where someone says it happens and then it becomes accepted as fact, even if there has not been any documentation to support it.

I have black sand, and I can report that my heaters have to be set at 82 in order to maintain an 80 degree temp in my tank. Mostly due to my basement sump, but if the dark substrate contributed to heating the water, then I don't think I would have to compensate right? As for algae growth, I had the same amount of diatoms as I did when I had white sand when the tank was set up. Once those were gone, I have not noticed an increase or decrease in algae growth on the sandbed. So, I can't support the claim that algae growth is increased using black sand.

And lastly reflected light? Please, this is one of those statements that makes sense when you first read it, YES white does reflect light better then ANY other color, but the light intensity by the time your source light hits the sandbed has been decreased substantially. Light falls off at a rate of 4 times every time the distance is doubled, the inverse square law. Now, I am already at a tank depth of 20" by the time the light has hit the sand, and any light that would be reflected would then be simulating light that has traveled greater then 20", and on top of that, the light is not really a clean reflection off the sand, it is more similar to being refracted. Everyone remembers that the angle of incidence = the angle of reflection from high school right? Well, our sandbeds are not exactly a single plain surface are they?

The fact remains that there is NO DOCUMENTATION on either side of the discussion, so yes we are both using anecdotal evidence. However, I would like to think that using some basic physics you can see that overall thermal mass of the tank is far to great for the color of the sand to impact, and that algae growth, if anything would be retarded by the darker color, not increased, because less light is reflected from the surface.

 

basic physics: black absorbs light and temp, white reflects light and temp.

 

As a salt/pepper sand person myself, I would have to say it's 100% preference as to what you like. I am running Haitian Moon Sand and Powder White from FL mixed. As a result, the colors seem to stand out more and there is not the glare you get from using traditional white.

Here is my new setup with the salt/pepper look:


Here is my old setup with the salt/pepper look:


In that last pic, you can see my lil 8g biocube that has white sand and how much more the reflection is from the sand.

Good Luck!
-Fritts

 

Okay i dunno bout everyone else but looking at JohnFritts last picture its pretty evident which tank has more light.

I am partial on the subject but now i do have to agree with REEF GURU

also looking at his biocube the rocks on the bottom show the coraline algae far more than the larger tank .hmmmmmm......

 

i totally agree

 

i really like the black sand's look better, but it brings no acctual advantages to a reef setting, although i have white sand a friend of mine has his 125 gallon with black sand, and his crocea clams, brain corals, lobos, acans, are all in the sand and they stick out like gems, its bautiful to see a dull looking black terrian and them streams of electirc blue, and ruby red, etc.

 

heh, the larger tank had way more light too.

I like the white, don't get me wrong.. but the black and white just feels better to me. There are several places I dived at when I was younger with white and black mix and it was just awesome. I think that's why I went with the mix.

-fritts