black sand in a planted tank??

[yehoshua]

I've asked in the past about added reflectors and increased wattage... but what about gravel and sand color as a factor in growing plants? I have fine black quartz gravel-- very attractive. But black absorbs light energy. In which case maybe the purpose of efficient tubes and reflectors is defeated. My question is: has anyone negative experiences with black gravel;does it really matter? Of course, the FISH are supposed to be thrilled with it. Here's a poll: what is the most significant step: 1) get good tubes and maybe over-power them? 2) add reflectors to the hood 3) use lighter colored sand?

 

[hurricanejedi]

I'm not sure but I've just ordered a couple bags of eco-complete and its supposed to be really good and its black. I think it looks very nice. Not sure about light absorption but hopefully I will have a lot of groundcover so maybe it won't matter to much.

 

[reiverix]

The light will hit the plants before it hits the gravel. Nothing to worry about.

 

[patoloco]

I'm not plant expert, but I will second reiverix indications. Most plants capture light in the top side of their leaves, so the reflected value of light is pretty low.

I've kept a tank with black sand for some time now and it looks great. I kept there a couple of plants and they were fine.

 

[tanker]

The light will hit the plants before it hits the gravel. Nothing to worry about.

Yes!!!

 

[Analog Saint]

the reflectors just redirect light that's pointed towards the fixture back into the tank- i.e. the faces of the bulbs that are pointing towards the hood of the tank and not the tank itself.

 

[RTR]

In a newly and somewhat sparsely set tank, reflection from the gravel may increase the light bouncing around just a little bit, but once the plants are growing well and and start to fill in, the gravel reflection is so minute as to be meaningless - use the gravel color you want.

 

[yehoshua]

What I notice in my black-graveled tanks is this: Valsneria for some reason wasted away over a few weeks, which never happened with coarse lighter colored gravel, and generally my two tanks (that's what I have) with black-quartz substrate seem to be generally dimmer (albeit very attractive) tanks. I do think that light gravel throws back light throughout the tank. Particularly to the fact that I've never tried planting them very densely. So there are significant plains of rolling absorbitive black. So you're all saying that it probably is perfectly okay. I'll leave them black, then. The Anabius are doing well. Thanks everybody.