How Much Black Sand Do I Need to Add to My Tanks?

[SilverArowanaBoi]

Hey y'all! After seeing some other people's beautiful tanks with black sand, I am thinking about mixing some in with my white sand. How much do I need to put in to create the darkening effect for my fish (meaning making my fish's colors richer/darker)? Also what is the best brand for black sand?

Thank you in advance!

 

[FINWIN]

Hey y'all! After seeing some other people's beautiful tanks with black sand, I am thinking about mixing some in with my white sand. How much do I need to put in to create the darkening effect for my fish (meaning making my fish's colors richer/darker)? Also what is the best brand for black sand?

Thank you in advance!

The more black you add gives you a gritty, volcanic island look. 50/50 gives texture. More white gives accent depth.

Another option is blending sand with gravel. I've done that on the 125 with great effect. The sand gives smooth color /depth and the gravel adds texture and interest. So say you have

70% white sand
15% black gravel
15% brown gravel

Or you could flip for a different effect without the gloom of black sand

50% black sand
25% white gravel
25% brown gravel

OR

40% black sand
40% gray gravel
20% brown gravel


I would get small bags and experiment with mixtures before committing. A warning about solid black sand...the bigger the tank, the darker it gets! And it will swallow up light from your fixtures.

Same thing with solid white sand but opposite...in larger tanks it becomes blinding and flat, stressing fish. Like starring at a strobe light. Led's will hurt your eyes. Poop and algae won't be flattering.

Either extreme looks pretty unnatural anyway. Even black sand beaches have bits of coral, agate, and volcanic gray rock.

 

[jjohnwm]

The more black you add gives you a gritty, volcanic island look. 50/50 gives texture. More white gives accent depth.

Another option is blending sand with gravel. I've done that on the 125 with great effect. The sand gives smooth color /depth and the gravel adds texture and interest. So say you have

70% white sand
15% black gravel
15% brown gravel

Or you could flip for a different effect without the gloom of black sand

50% black sand
25% white gravel
25% brown gravel

OR

40% black sand
40% gray gravel
20% brown gravel


I would get small bags and experiment with mixtures before committing. A warning about solid black sand...the bigger the tank, the darker it gets! And it will swallow up light from your fixtures.

Same thing with solid white sand but opposite...in larger tanks it becomes blinding and flat, stressing fish. Like starring at a strobe light. Led's will hurt your eyes. Poop and algae won't be flattering.

Either extreme looks pretty unnatural anyway. Even black sand beaches have bits of coral, agate, and volcanic gray rock.

^ What she said! I'll translate that from "artist-speak" into "redneck-ese" and just say...as much or as little as you like.

Add it gradually, and just look and see how you feel about it. It's easy to add more; it's really tough too remove it.

FINWIN ...you mention that poop and algae don't have much eye appeal with white gravel. I'm wondering what kind of gravel makes that stuff look good? Asking for a friend...

 

[FINWIN]

^ What she said! I'll translate that from "artist-speak" into "redneck-ese" and just say...as much or as little as you like.

Add it gradually, and just look and see how you feel about it. It's easy to add more; it's really tough too remove it.

FINWIN ...you mention that poop and algae don't have much eye appeal with white gravel. I'm wondering what kind of gravel makes that stuff look good? Asking for a friend...

Believe it or not a blend of colors with sand/gravel will hide the appearance of mess. Like what commercial facilities/restaraunts do for flooring, using terazzo type or pattern flooring that hides foot traffic. Same thing with carpet in high traffic areas like casinos. Those wild patterns on dark backgrounds aren't just for show and theme, they hide the extremely high foot traffic/spills between cleanings.

50/50 black/white coarse sand is very effective at hiding in tanks. Or any light/dark mix. River rock/sand good also.

 

[jjohnwm]

Believe it or not a blend of colors with sand/gravel will hide the appearance of mess. Like what commercial facilities/restaraunts do for flooring, using terazzo type or pattern flooring that hides foot traffic. Same thing with carpet in high traffic areas like casinos. Those wild patterns on dark backgrounds aren't just for show and theme, they hide the extremely high foot traffic/spills between cleanings.

50/50 black/white coarse sand is very effective at hiding in tanks. Or any light/dark mix. River rock/sand good also.

I agree completely, although I want poop and mess to stick out like a sore thumb so that I can address it rather than having it concealed.

I worked on the electrical aspect of the construction of a casino once, and I vividly remember the insanely colourful and busily-patterned carpeting they installed. If you dropped a screw...or even a screwdriver!...onto that headache-inducing eyesore, you could forget about seeing it unless you literally got on hands and knees with your eye beside the floor and looked sideways, to spot the object as a high point.

Effective as camouflage for debris? Absolutely! But...attractive? Lol, not even close...and if the colour and pattern made you puke, you'd never find it to clean it up!

S SilverArowanaBoi , I'm playing around currently with the addition of reddish garnet blasting sand...available very inexpensively at Princess Auto... to the very light-coloured pool filter sand in my tanks. I'll try to snap a few pics of the results.

 

[FINWIN]

Something else you might want to test. Depending on the size of the tank, and other deco/background it will affect how the led lighting looks which in turn affects how the sand looks. In my office every tank looks completely different with the same led lighting and settings! For example my 6 pm sunset settings are magenta leading into night mode. Lazarus' tank looks day glo hot pink, the grow out tank a pinkish orange and the breeder mid magenta!

I would place a small sample of a mix you like in a container or in a corner of the tank under normal tank conditions. Nothing more annoying than getting a mix you like and having it look totally different under light and water. The more stuff you mix the less predictable the results.

And yeah those casino carpets are tacky asf, busy and ugly. They smell a lot, too. I think some casinos rely too much on carpet to hide their lack of maintenance. Like fishkeepers wanting to hide muck...but I was referring to situations where it isn't spotless but forgiving. Stuffs gonna sit on top of sand no matter what color so you'd see it for sure.

 

[Midwater]

Stick to white (or beige) sand.

 

[dmyersWv]

I like the mixed more white than black with some lerge black pebbles. Lowes has the large stones in white and black.

 

[jjohnwm]

I thought that I should re-visit this thread to clarify something. After I posted here a few weeks ago I added some of the inexpensive Princess Auto blasting garnet to a couple of tanks, and was fairly happy with the results. The new garnet was the typical reddish colour that I expected, and the sand was very fine in texture, much finer than the pool filter sand that was already in use. The mixture needs to be stirred up periodically, during a vacuuming of the substrate or otherwise, to keep the two types of sand mixed. It appears as though the finer garnet sifts down between the granules of PFS, filling the interstices between grains and eventually collecting near the bottom. I suspect that if it were never stirred, or mixed by fish or vacuuming or whatever, that the garnet would be pretty much invisible beneath the surface of the PFS.

But here's the kicker: I liked the colour of the garnet when added to the PFS and picked up another couple bags yesterday while in the city. This afternoon I tore one open and was a bit miffed to find that the sand inside was still that nice fine grain structure...but it was dark gray, approaching black in colour! Still looks good, in fact I probably prefer the look (the PFS/black-garnet mix takes on a medium-to-dark mottled brownish colour, depending upon the proportions), but if you are looking for that classic dark red colour you might be very unhappy.

The bag has no indication on it of the colour of the sand inside.