Black or White sand

[siebertn]

Is it worth going through the trouble to change the sand in my 150 gal from white to black "moon sand".
The tank is mostly stocked with sa/ca cichlids except for 1 CK and a cat from africa.
The backround is a gray 3D rockwork back

 

[peewee]

i always find black substrate to be sexy... hahahaha! so i'll go for that moon sand. and i think white sand is already over used. i mean in general.

 

[siebertn]

I hope to get a bit more colour out of my fish with the black gravel and i just feel like a change.

 

[swede]

i have natural colored sand and i really wish i had gone with black sand in hind sight

 

[peewee]

yup, black colored substrate enhances the fishes color.

 

[ridehardorgohome]

The only thing I have a prob with, is the black sand shows too much debris on bottom of tank a littleb colored subtrate might be better?

 

[NOLAGT]

Look at estes ultra reef sand...I MUCH prefer that over the Tahitian moon sand...its much nicer. I have lots of pics of it in my 240 build thread. And yes black shows more but with this sand if you deco right and have enough current the sand is fine enough to keep the poo on top and the current keeps it off the top and into the filters. Thats how it is on my tank at least....

 

[davo]

Depends on what fish you keep IMO. Some fish look nice on a darker background. But some look terrible on it. It can make some fish look a lot darker and drabber, while some it may create a better contrast with the colours or make colours stand out more. It's better for hiding pieces of crap too than the light stuff.

Why not mix it up and have both normal coloured sand with black sand. You only need about a third of the mix to be black but you can keep adding some until you get the mixture you like. Can look really effective.

 

[sick_lid]

When I switched from white sub to black, I noticed my fish got a lot darker, but their colors popped a lot more too.. Keep that in mind with what you want your fish to look like..

 

[Peanut_Power]

Depends on what fish you keep IMO. Some fish look nice on a darker background. But some look terrible on it. It can make some fish look a lot darker and drabber, while some it may create a better contrast with the colours or make colours stand out more. It's better for hiding pieces of crap too than the light stuff.

Why not mix it up and have both normal coloured sand with black sand. You only need about a third of the mix to be black but you can keep adding some until you get the mixture you like. Can look really effective.

Thats what I do in my tanks. The 'mottled' sand look is awesome. Plus the fish are neither too light, or too dark. I might add a little more dark though, just to see if I can perfect it a little more.