Hawaiian Black Sand...Yes or No?

[Sunny Goold]

I'd had three reef tanks so far. First one was a 90 gallon with Hawaiian black. It is a coarse substrate. I love the color. You don't see the algae accumulate on the bottom very much. It doesn't blow around at all but you can't keep some sand animals. Bummer. It does darken your tank. Absolutely! In fact I had a hard time keeping par for some corals and clams. And in addition, some particles are magnetic in it and will stick to your magnetic cleaner or get caught in your cleaning sponge and scratch acrylic.

My second tank was normal white sand (don't remember which color). It had a finer texture that would blow around but the part I didn't like was the algae that I could see on the sand between cleaning days. I felt it looked dirty most of the time.

For my third tank, I went back to the black. I think the colors of the reef and fish show up so much more but I am back to the magnetic particles and the lower par. This time I did the Tahitian Moon. I like the sand size better, although it does blow. But it doesn't show the algae as much and the colors pop. I hate the magnetic part. I have to be super careful at subsurface line when I clean. Now I just keep my clams up high close to surface of water and hope they won't fall. But they do great up there.

It's a trade off. No right or wrong. Just different. This tank had been up since August. First time trying to take picture of tank, please be kind.

The tank looks amazing. Now you have me thinking I should go black