Let me hear your thoughts on black sand.

[Joker79]

Took the plunge and got four 20 lb bags of hawaiin black for 17.99 per bag!!! Great deal considering they are 30 bucks a bag!

 

[rajkovich207]

So I totally forgot my lfs uses black sand. We got to talking about it and he uses the tahitian moon sand. He said it is slightly magnetic but he loves it and has been using it for a really long time. Good enough for me!

 

[Tangy Reefer]

10-11 years later. . . . Do we still like Black sand? I tried in 1 tank and couldn't grow anything and in another LPS tank everything looks great . . . . Thoughts????

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I don’t prefer the chemical attributes of black sand.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Ive used it but with glass magnets and they have picked up particles of sand

 

[Tangy Reefer]

Ive used it but with glass magnets and they have picked up particles of sand

Yes, I have seen that. My concern is more towards the possible leaching of metals. Are people growing corals with this sand?

 

[mcarroll]

They have black sand beaches in Hawaii, but they don't have corals there.

That could be pure coincidence, but looks aside, I wouldn't use black for that reason. It's unnatural for a reef.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Yes, I have seen that. My concern is more towards the possible leaching of metals. Are people growing corals with this sand?

I have suspected that why I stopped using it

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Yes, I have seen that. My concern is more towards the possible leaching of metals. Are people growing corals with this sand?

That is why I do not recommend it. Doesn’t mean you can’t, but I think it’s a risk.

 

[X-37B]

I setup a 20×12×12 with it 4 months ago. It has a few montis 2 worm porites rocks and a quater size nem from a split was 3, 2 normal. and a mini.
I dose A4R and run a small bag of cuprisorb no floss or carbon.
Plan to put some stags in once I trim.
Simple system and A4R is one reason.

 

[KrisReef]

My Thoughts on Black Sand

I was going
to write a HiCoo
BUt Japenese poetry
might be racist?

And today, those are my dearest thoughts on black sand that looks nice, but might contain problematic elements based upon past reported issues that are too scary for me to risk.

No one was insulted in this post , except me for bad spells and my High School English Teacher, Ms Steinmetz who would likely be laughing if she read my humor. She got it, but she flashed her legs too much sitting atop of her eye level desk. circa 1975.

 

[X-37B]

I forgot to mention I ran a large magnet through it and gave up. There is alot of magnetic rocks and particles in it.

 

[Tahoe61]

I found metal shavings on the magnets to my wave makers. With all the concerns that go into a system I didn't need to worry about metal too.

 

[Tangy Reefer]

So I will say it seems my LPS corals thrive with no problems in the Hawian black sand . . . .

 

[fryman]

I've had a 120gal mixed reef setup with 60lb of carib-sea hawaiian "Arag-Alive" black sand. I admit I don't have any "fancy" sps, just some bird's nest, bubblegum digi and purple stylo which grow fast.

My last ICP looked pretty good to me (oceamo MS)
slighly low: boron, chromium, and nickel
low: manganese, selenium, vanadium, zinc

slightly high: lithium (382 mcg/l), bromide (101 mg/l)

Everything else was in normal ranges.

I use IO regular, and dose iron daily (this is the first time I measured any iron). I weekly add Manganese, Vanadium, Molybdenum, Flourine, Silica, Nickel, Cobalt, Selenium, and Chromium. I may have to switch manganese and vanadium to daily because they are perpetually low.

I've been adjusting upwards on trace dosing but still haven't quite nailed it. I dunno if low zinc is a concern?

I don't believe the black sand is leaching anything, but if the lithium & bromide are a concern I'd like to know.

 

[X-37B]

I've had a 120gal mixed reef setup with 60lb of carib-sea hawaiian "Arag-Alive" black sand. I admit I don't have any "fancy" sps, just some bird's nest, bubblegum digi and purple stylo which grow fast.

My last ICP looked pretty good to me (oceamo MS)
slighly low: boron, chromium, and nickel
low: manganese, selenium, vanadium, zinc

slightly high: lithium (382 mcg/l), bromide (101 mg/l)

Everything else was in normal ranges.

I use IO regular, and dose iron daily (this is the first time I measured any iron). I weekly add Manganese, Vanadium, Molybdenum, Flourine, Silica, Nickel, Cobalt, Selenium, and Chromium. I may have to switch manganese and vanadium to daily because they are perpetually low.

I've been adjusting upwards on trace dosing but still haven't quite nailed it. I dunno if low zinc is a concern?

I don't believe the black sand is leaching anything, but if the lithium & bromide are a concern I'd like to know.

If I had your system I would drop in a nylon bag of Cuprisorb just to be safe.

 

[fryman]

If I had your system I would drop in a nylon bag of Cuprisorb just to be safe.

That seems like a bad idea because it will strip out metals and my metal levels are low, with the exception of lithium which is borderline. Copper is 0.14mcg/l which now that I look at it is slightly below the recommended level as well.

 

[X-37B]

That seems like a bad idea because it will strip out metals and my metal levels are low, with the exception of lithium which is borderline. Copper is 0.14mcg/l which now that I look at it is slightly below the recommended level as well.

Ok, good luck then. Keep us informed. I have ran it in full blown acro systems with no issues when I dropped a screw into the tank that was unrecoverable. I ran with it over a year and it had no effect on the sytem.
I would still run a small bag and not worry.
Old 120 screw system with Cuprisorb, lol.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I've had a 120gal mixed reef setup with 60lb of carib-sea hawaiian "Arag-Alive" black sand. I admit I don't have any "fancy" sps, just some bird's nest, bubblegum digi and purple stylo which grow fast.

My last ICP looked pretty good to me (oceamo MS)
slighly low: boron, chromium, and nickel
low: manganese, selenium, vanadium, zinc

slightly high: lithium (382 mcg/l), bromide (101 mg/l)

Everything else was in normal ranges.

I use IO regular, and dose iron daily (this is the first time I measured any iron). I weekly add Manganese, Vanadium, Molybdenum, Flourine, Silica, Nickel, Cobalt, Selenium, and Chromium. I may have to switch manganese and vanadium to daily because they are perpetually low.

I've been adjusting upwards on trace dosing but still haven't quite nailed it. I dunno if low zinc is a concern?

I don't believe the black sand is leaching anything, but if the lithium & bromide are a concern I'd like to know.

Lithium and bromide aren’t generally much concern and I would not attribute them to black sand.

How long has the sand been there? I would expect the release of potentially problem metals declines over time.

I’d also say that not all black sands are necessarily the same. A natural ocean black sand may be far less of a concern than something made from ground up black rocks, because the freely releasable metals are gone from the ocean sand.

 

[X-37B]

Lithium and bromide aren’t generally much concern and I would not attribute them to black sand.

How long has the sand been there? I would expect the release of potentially problem metals declines over time.

I’d also say that not all black sands are necessarily the same. A natural ocean black sand may be far less of a concern than something made from ground up black rocks, because the freely releasable metals are gone from the ocean sand.

Interesting. My black sand was bagged from lfs.
There were so many particles sticking to the magnet everytime I ran it through the sand I gave up. Also it was more like tiny rocks than any sand I have ever used.