Who loves black sand

Love it, hence my pic on here.

Don’t use it now though.
 
I'm using it for the very first time on a new anemone tank setup right now. Carib Sea Indo-Pacific, I believe the label said. I think it's beautiful. However, every bag of black sand should come with a specific warning.

The material is primarily volcanic basalt, not coral aragonite like most sands. As such, the individual grains of black sand are much harder, sharper, and lighter than typical for white sand. If even a tiny grain gets between your magnetic scraper and the glass, it will put a scratch in the glass, almost guaranteed. And what makes this even more hazardous is that, unlike white sand, black sand is mildly ferromagnetic, meaning it is attracted to strong magnets. So when your powerful magnetic algae scraper is moving along the bottom of the glass near the sand surface, the risk of picking up those hard sharp sand grains is increased.
 

IF YOU HAD TO OPERATE EVERYTHING ELSE MANUALLY, WHICH AUTOMATED SYSTEM WOULD YOU KEEP?

  • Auto top-off

    Votes: 52 57.8%
  • Automated dosing

    Votes: 6 6.7%
  • Mechanical filtration / roller filter

    Votes: 4 4.4%
  • Automated water testing

    Votes: 3 3.3%
  • Automatic feeding

    Votes: 1 1.1%
  • Lighting schedule

    Votes: 16 17.8%
  • Controller and remote monitoring

    Votes: 3 3.3%
  • Leak detection and emergency shutoff

    Votes: 1 1.1%
  • Automatic water changes

    Votes: 3 3.3%
  • None. I prefer to operate everything manually

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Something else (explain in the comments)

    Votes: 1 1.1%
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