# Black sand or white sand?



## Elle (Oct 25, 2010)

Calling all aquascapers!

Tank is a 180g acrylic with a blue painted background. I've been using white sand in my temp tank and was planning on using it in the 180...but I have oscars, other cichlids and a pleco. And they poop. A lot. It's like having a white carpet and pets. I'm vacuuming the sand almost daily, and it still looks kind of dingy.

I was planning to add powerheads for current in the new tank, and there's going to be a big-azz canister filter on it, but I am still wondering if that will help with moving the poop or if I would still be doomed to spot vacuum all the time.

Removing the tank background is NOT an option...way too much work, so I was wondering if anyone has used black sand with a blue background, and does it look ok? I've heard that black sand makes the fish colour up more.

*White sand:*

- lower cost
- brighter look
- shows ALL poop...hard to keep clean

*Black sand:*

- more $$$$$
- makes fish colour "pop"
- harder to see poop
- may not go with blue background?


----------



## target (Apr 21, 2010)

I have white sand with my discus and plecos, and they produce lots of poop as well. If you add powerheads and direct the flow properly you can get all the poop to accumulate in one corner where it can be vacummed out easily. That's what I have set up in my tank. Since adding the powerhead I rarely see anything sitting on the sand. It all gets directed towards the filter inlet.


----------



## jobber (May 14, 2010)

Agree with the above post refering to using powerheads to corale the poop in one area of the tank. I use black sand and it cost the same as the white sand. Poop is contrasts well to the dark substrate. In natural, sand is white/beige. White sand also benefits by reflecting more light whereas black sand provides a more dimmed and darker look. Tough decision, I know it was tough for me a few months ago when I had to choose between the two.


----------



## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

I like the white sand, but black would work fine. Just wondering why black would cost more than white? Unless you plan on using playsand (which isn't white, but more grey/buff).

You're always going to see some poop with messy fish like big cichlids and big plecos, that's just a fact of life. Powerheads or undergravel jets (Constructing Under-Gravel Jets) help to keep the poop suspended and into the filters or corraled into a corner, but it's always going to be there.


----------



## Elle (Oct 25, 2010)

That UG jet setup is a *very* cool idea. Thanks for the link! It might also work really well in my goldfish tank, even though they have a gravel substrate.

I'm not looking for a perfectly clean tank all the time, but I don't like having poop settle all over the tank as it is a nightmare to clean and you always miss at least some of it. Corralling it towards the filters where it's more likely to be caught and is easier to clean up would be a perfect compromise, especially since the pleco seems able to crap 10x his body weight daily.

We're currently using pure white sandblasting sand, which is bright white and *way* cheaper than the black Tahitian moon sand stuff. I don't like the colour of the play sand, so using it wasn't an option for me.


----------



## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

The Estes stuff I have is a decent price at J&L, and if you get lots, Jeff might be able to cut you a deal on it. I like the fact that it's smooth and rounded. Is the sandblasting sand smooth? If not, I'd be concerned about cichlids and catfish which like to root around.


----------



## Elle (Oct 25, 2010)

It's smooth sand. We haven't had any issues with scratches on the fish beyond the usual cichlid brawls.  I usually hand rinse out anything that gets sucked into the bucket when I gravel vac and put it back in the tank, and it's not scratchy on my skin when I handle it.

Somebody else on the forum was using it in their tanks...you can get it at Lordco.


----------



## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

If that's the case and you like it, you might as well use that. If you want to see the white sand on a black background, go to my 100 gallon cube journal (in my sig). I do vacuum once a week now, as the plecos digging throws a lot of debris around, but before I got the Peckoltia compta in there, I rarely saw any poop.


----------

