tahitian moon sand or black substrate

[famman]

Does anyone have black onyx or black tahitian moon sand in their tank?

Does it look dirty all the time? It it easy to clean or vaccuum?

I've tried regular sand, but it collects debris too fast and it's a little hard to keep clean plus my wife hates the color.

thanks
:)

[125gJoe]

I have Onyx sand from SeaChem. It's not black, but a gray color. I like the look of it and it's great for live plants. I could see where a light color of gravel or sand would be harder to keep looking spotless. Also, I think the darker substrates help bring out the colors of your fish.

[Cearbhaill]

Ditto on loving the Onyx Sand- it is beautiful and easy to keep up.

[Andy16]

I have the tahaitan moon stuff and i like it.

[famman]

Hi Andy,

tell me more about your tihitian moon sand experience. I just put 2 washed 20lb bags in my 55 gal. I'm interested in how well plants like it as well as how hard it is to keep clean.

thanks
:)

[Andy16]

I dont keep plants, but it seems quite easy to clean. If you have good mechanical filters or power filters, you could jsut stir the sand up a bit the make the poop and uneaten food get sucked up into the filter. I dont use a python for vacuuming so i just stick the vacuum end into the sadn and then replace it later. The sand stay at the bottom of the bucket so i dont lose much. I wouldnt say its too hard to clean. Might have the "dead spot" problem but htat happens with almost all subtrates taht i used.

[famman]

Thanks Andy16

Anyone else use Tahitian Moon Sand?

thanks
:)

[flamingoncold]

I just started using tahitian moon sand. In with my kuhli loaches tank and my eel tank. If you dont wash it REALLY good it turns your water sort of black. Just wash it in a bucket with water. Swish it around a couple of times then dump water out and fill it up again. Just keep doing that till the water is clear.

Then it looks awesome nice black sand and clear water!:)

[Captain_Obvious]

I have Tahitian Moon in my 20H. I don't have live plants in that tank, but with such a fine substrate, the plants would probably not stay "planted," and would constantly keep floating out. In my experience it is not difficult to keep clean, I use a small siphon and keep the flow as slow as possible to avoid pulling the sand out. Additionally, I just stir the sand up, I don't push the siphon down into the substrate.

If you get the black water problem from not rinsing it well enough, get some Kent ProClear and use that; you will have crystal clear water in a couple of hours.

[N8DOGG]

I would like to use sand in a cichlid tank would this work?

I've used small rocks and of course they love to dig and dig so I'm now using larger rocks and so far they haven't been able to move it.

But black sand would look great in the new tank I'm setting up. Would it be a problem with the fish digging up the sand?

How does sand effect your pH? if it does

[phanmc]

Tahitian moon has no nutrients so it does not help plant growth at all. Its also inert and doesn't change PH levels. Alot of cichlid tanks that I've seen have sand (crushed coral) in them. The cichlids will do their own decorating but it usually doesn't cause any problems as the sand will settle quickly. The only potential problem is the filture intake, you'll want to cover it with some filter floss to prevent sand from entering and messing up your filter's impeller.

[valerie]

I have black sand(can't remember what brand)in my shell dweller tank and i love the look of it. But i find that it really shows the dirt. Shortly after cleaning it looks dirty again.

But one postive thing about it showing teh debris so easily is taht you really keep up on your water changes:p

[N8DOGG]

I've never used sand before and I think it would look great.

How does it compare to other substrates with thinks like cleaning?

I really don't care if my cichlids move it around b/c I like to make them mad and "fix" what they did. But is it safe for them to pick it up in there mouths?

Thanks for all of the feed back so far.
N8

[phanmc]

In an unplanted tank with areas of deep sand (deeper than an inch), the sand will need to be stirred up once in a while to prevent anaerobic bacteria from growing and creating creating methane, which is poisonous.

You don't vacuum sand, you just pass the vac close enough to suck up the fish waste. Since sand is denser than gravel, most of the fish waste will remain on the surface.

Swallowing sand doesn't harm the fish.

[N8DOGG]

Thanks for the info I think I'm going to try sand in my next tank. It also sounds easyer to clean since you don't have to move all of the sand around to clean like you would on larger substate

[johnnyxxl]

I am also planning on useing onyx sand and onyx gravel mixed together to rather help prevent deadspot problems if I am not mistaking in my logic. I am also planning on getting some fish that will burrow a bit in the sand I suspect thinking about shell dwellers chiclids if I can find some info on them.

[phanmc]

mixing onyx sand and onyx gravel won't help the deadspot issue because the finer grains will eventually sift to the bottom. Having burrowing snails and rooted plants will.