Can't seem to get used to the black sand alone in the tank. It just makes the tank look too stark for lack of a better word. I have to mix in something for sure. Anyone feel this way and did you mix it with something and if you did what did you use? Thanks
I don't like black substrates for this very reason. I find they do not look natural enough for me. I have pool filter sand in one tank with small bits of gravel. That would be my recommendation. Nothing more natural then sand. Pool filter sand is cheap as well. 50lbs cost you around 15 dollars or less. Try to get the HTH brand if possible, not sure if that's available in Canada.
What else do you have or plan for the tank? Light or dark it really depends what your trying to do as both have adv/disadv.
Once your put plants in and lighter hardscape a black substrate shouldn't look stark. Light colored substrates like pool filter sand are great, I use them all the time, but they also show everything and can become an eyesore if the tank isn't maintained properly. Dark substrates also make many fish and plant colors pop more.
I have 3 tanks with BDBS, I like it and it makes my plants and fish pop. Though some darker colored fish may not pop as much, some corydoras kind of blend in with it. I am going to start a smaller tank soon with pool filter sand as soon as I find some then my darker corydoras will go in that tank.
This stuff looks great mixed in top layer and scattered around in small piles on top of black. But yea, any substrate that's to homogeneous in size and monotone in color to me needs help to look natural.
This stuff looks great scattered around top of black also.
Wow; this stuff looks really, really good. I know this might sound stuffy, but most gravels at pet and fish stores look so incredibly unnatural. I find that substrate is the biggest challenge in an aquascape. You can get great-looking driftwood and larger rocks, but substrate options are too monochrome, too uniform in size or too unnatural looking. (I also think all-black sand looks glaringly unnatural.)
Pool filter sand is the best option in my mind, but it still can look too uniform. You can mix in some gravel with the sand, but it can be hard to get gravel that is similar enough in color to really make the mix look natural.
Ok; I think I just revealed how anal, particular and obsessive I am about substrate.
I'm interested in going with a Monte Carlo carpet, but I didn't realize it would do so well in blasting sand. What do you do in the way of fertilizers or nutrients for it?
I have trimmed that damn stuff down to roots several times. It just keeps coming back faster than I can trim it, so I said "screw it" and have just let the stuff go. It's like a pillow when I'm working on the tank.
For a while there my 40g tank was just BDBS but I also had a lot of black lava rock just from the big orange hardware store that was piled up and around in it.
I think that looked pretty nice, though the lava rock really seems to attract green hair algae something terrible.
I've recently been transitioning it out of just being a shrimp tank and making it more of a hillstream tank, so I've added a bunch of smoother pebbles and rocks as I find them, though I'm still trying to keep them relatively dark colored in general (and forgive me for using this picture again, it's been in several threads at this point!)
At this point I'm getting so overgrown with anubias that the substrate isn't as visible anyway!
I had a Beautiful M.C. carpet in BDBS for a year or so. Then it started lifting, no matter how short I kept it. Finally it just started pulling itself out of the substrate entirely. I miss that carpet something fierce !!! .....
I have used BDB in my recent 40 breeder and it was nice looking at first and was really cheap. I had mixed it with black moon sand. Now it just looks dirty and bland, and honestly not really a fan of it any longer. I'm debating about dumping it and using something else, just not sure what. I like the idea of a brownish colored plain gravel similar to flourite, but not the best for plants obviously.
Lots of input. Thank you all. I removed the sand and will never use it again. I had to try it but really hate the black and water changes were brutal. Never again for me.
I have tried black sand twice now in two different tanks. Once it becomes full of algae, which for me is only a short time, it looks awful. Light colored sand is much more natural and pleasant to look at IMO. I recently got a bunch of Caribsea Sunset Gold virtually for free and I have used it in the past and it looks awesome.
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