Black or White Sand

I think it's dependent on the fish. For instance, my gold severums seem to pop much more on my black sand but it's also causing my heterospila to appear darker than they normally do. By the same token, my hoplo catfish are almost completely black when they are on my black sand but I can clearly see their spots in the bare bottom tank.

That would explain why I see conflicting opinions online.

Go with black sand. I used white sand for my 55 gallon and now I wish it was black. You can see everything on white, especially diatoms and algae.

I've noticed some white sand pics have a bit of algae on them, but haven't noticed any on dark substrates.

my favorite is black gravel and black back ground. Kinda like hot looking cars, black on black with blacked out windows!

When I first went to set up my aquarium I wanted a black background and substrate. They didn't have black backgrounds, so I got the darkest blue I could find. Then I found some navy gravel, but it lightened up a bit in water, which disappointed me. I like black backgrounds with black sand too!

 

I have 2 tanks, one has black sand and one has a reddish. The red looks much more natural and I like the way it looks with the driftwood. If you're only doing rocks and no wood then I like the black because of the poop showing.

 

Where did you find red

 

playsand is my favourite.

 

I have 2 tanks, one has black sand and one has a reddish. The red looks much more natural and I like the way it looks with the driftwood. If you're only doing rocks and no wood then I like the black because of the poop showing.

I can see red sand looking very nice with driftwood.

 

Sorry, Fishlore wasn't liking my computer for the last day or so. They have a couple of options for the color.

 

HI all

I went ahead and change my natural looking gravel to black sand and I’m so happy with that
So I’m thinking if I go for my second tank that has black gravel ( bad choice) too

So if I change it tI sand it would be good for my corydoras

I have neon tetras
Black skirt tetras
Corydoras

So the question is if I want to switch
Do you suggest to go for black or white sand as my corydoras are dark and now they’re not showing well and I have a black theme tank
Which do you think works better for me
I know that black sand is easier to hide the dirtiness
So help me with your suggestions please
This is how it looks now
I may add Hornwort from my other tan to it





As my other question
If I go ahead and add the third tank for my multI tank syndrome cure
5g rimless for a betta
What color do you suggest for that as bettas are usually dark


Thank you

 

If I were you, I would do white sand as it looks a little more natural imo.

 

The color of you substrate can also alter the color of your bottom dwellers for them to adapt to their enviornments.

 

The color of you substrate can also alter the color of your bottom dwellers for them to adapt to their enviornments.

Is it better for them to be in this color as you mean?

My other tank has black sand with albino corydoras and they seem to be happy and they’re shining for me now

 

Is it better for them to be in this color as you mean?

My other tank has black sand with albino corydoras and they seem to be happy and they’re shining for me now

No I just meant I think they will just sort of blend into their enviornment a little more.

 

I’m still thinking if I do the change
For the maintenance

 

View attachment 562275


I’m still thinking if I do the change
For the maintenance

Looks great!

 

Looks great!

Thanks so you’re agree to go for white sand and buy the hassle of keeping it clean

 

Thanks so you’re agree to go for white sand and buy the hassle of keeping it clean

I prefer white over black sand, but it's ultimately your choice. Go for the one that you like.

 

Why was your black gravel a mistake?

 

An enormous amount of fish like dark substrate, cause it looks more like their natural habitat.

Several fish (tetras for instance) have a dark back to camouflage them from above (against predators).

 

Over the years I've gone back and forth between white sand and black sand. I think white sand makes my tanks stand out more. They look brighter and seem more natural and always get compliments. On the other hand, the majority of the fish that I have kept (with a couple of exceptions) show better colour when over black sand.

 

Why was your black gravel a mistake?

Not a mistake just after I set that up I thought about sand that's less sharp and better for my corydoras

 

Yeah I just can’t decide yet
When lights are not on it’s impossible to see corydoras
I touched one accidentally when water changing with vacuum because they are same as black gravel and have a feeling they’re happier with finer sand
My other tank has black sand and albino corydoras are so happy and I an see them so nice
And was thinking to have 2 different look setups
However with hornwort I guess it would be harder to keep it clean though

 

I personally like pool filter sand due to the fact it looks the most natural IMO ( light tannish color) it’s the easiest to clean when first putting it in your tank.. ( I honestly don’t even rinse when I add a little using a spring water bottle full of it ) and when doing a substrate vacuum it seems to be the heaviest where none really gets pulled into the water change tube. Just my opinion

 

An enormous amount of fish like dark substrate, cause it looks more like their natural habitat.

Several fish (tetras for instance) have a dark back to camouflage them from above (against predators).

Actually most fish, freshwater and marine, are darker from above than from below, to blend in with the substrate (which in freshwater is usually sand-coloured or darker, white sand is relatively rare), and to blend in from below against the sky.

I don’t like white sand because it doesn’t look natural (to me). I prefer sand-coloured sand. I think it gives you truer fish colours. They’re not abnormally dark trying to blend in more on a very dark substrate, and they’re not pale from trying to blend with a very light substrate.

 

I like the look of black plus, having live plants you don't want to vacuum the gravel as much as if you have artificial decorations. That means poop settles down into the sand/gravel and you can see it. I have a brown/red sand and you can definitely see the poop line. It's so disgusting.

 

If I were you, I would do white sand as it looks a little more natural imo.

If you want it truly natural, find what the particular fish is that you're getting and see what it is from their habitat. I have an Amazon red/brown. I've never seen a stream with white, sandy bottoms. Or black for that matter. Neither of those environments really seem to exist anywhere other than an ocean.

 

Yeah and by that I really mean the natural beach sand color not bright white

 

Do yall prefer black or white sand? I love both but I dont know what to choose from. I like white because its just brighter in the tank but debri always shows and the black looks very clean and slick but I feel like it dims the tank. Honestly idk, I just want to see what yall prefer and if it could help me choose

 

I think black is really neat looking and makes everything pop out more! It kinda depends on what all is in the tank though too.... What are you going to have?

 

I think black is really neat looking and makes everything pop out more! It kinda depends on what all is in the tank though too.... What are you going to have?

I want to have it planted generously, with some greens and maybe red plants? But I know there will be a good amount of plants in and I want some stone and wood in there. But I dont know what type of stone/rocks I want. Any suggestions?

 

I voted for white sand, but realistically I prefer "natural" sand i.e. mixed white tan and brown etc. It looks more organic to me personally. At the same time I think that with the right scape and right fish black sand can really make things pop.

 

I want to have it planted generously, with some greens and maybe red plants? But I know there will be a good amount of plants in and I want some stone and wood in there. But I dont know what type of stone/rocks I want. Any suggestions?

Neat! I don’t have any rocks in my tanks so I can’t help you there sorry! But I think they look amazing so I’m interested to see what others say. I know some type can alter the water chemistry so just check up on that before you decide.
For wood I’ve used driftwood and cholla wood and they both neat! I like to make cholla wood trees by standing the wood up vertically then tying or gluing Java moss or some other floating plant to the top.
I think the black substrate would look awesome with that setup!
Here’s a pic of a 10gal I have with black substrate. The pic is from awhile ago but you can get an idea from it.

 

In my experience white sand may look great at first but after a while it often turns greeny brown as algae grows & no amount of cleaning will get it back white again. Another con for white sand is if you have bottom dwellers they often lose colour to try & blend in.
Black sand in a well planted tank can make both the plants & fish ‘pop’, again though any bottom dwellers will darken to blend in.
Whichever you choose will have some bearing on what fish to choose

 

I chose other; I have some black sand and it suffices for some of my needs (I have it as a layer in my substrate in a large tank mixed with crushed pumice, and slightly mingled with onyx sand, round black lava stones, and black ecocomplete; it looks and feels a little weird on its own- we're talking black diamond, right?), but for an actual sand tank, I have zero of either, I use Caribsea Sunset Gold- play and pool sand both look mediocre to me. (I have a garnet sand coming to play with, as well as more garnet gravel, I think that's the end of my current substrate adventures other than more spendy crystal shrimp substrate, it was like nearly forty bucks for a teensy bag!!!)
Here's the black diamond sand closeup (in my son's betta Marineland build) with onyx 'sand', lava rock, and ecocomplete (pardon my waterspots)
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I want to have it planted generously, with some greens and maybe red plants? But I know there will be a good amount of plants in and I want some stone and wood in there. But I dont know what type of stone/rocks I want. Any suggestions?

You can't go wrong with ohko with red plants, I did that with some dark smooth glacial gravel, looks on point with earth-tone fish like my laser corys.

I want to have it planted generously, with some greens and maybe red plants? But I know there will be a good amount of plants in and I want some stone and wood in there. But I dont know what type of stone/rocks I want. Any suggestions?

You can't go wrong with ohko with red plants, I did that with some dark smooth glacial gravel, looks on point with earth-tone fish like my laser corys.

 

I voted black. I have a community tank with black and a betta tank with white. The white really shows everything and never looks totally clean and it only has a betta. The black is classic and elegant, and stays very clean looking, but it very common because of it.

My daughter and I are thinking of maybe trying a goldfish tank and we are going to do a combo of black and white for something different. But that tank is going to be pretty bare in terms of aquascape and fish.

 

personally I like white sand because either I have red fish and i think the dark red colors pop more on white. Or I just have dark fish and don’t want a dark and dark mix