10 Gallon Tank Black Substrate that Doesn’t Buffer Water

Started a 10 gallon tank about a year ago. I just used cheap black gravel from petco. I’m just housing Neocaridina shrimp and various snails in this tank, along with a few random anubias. Unfortunately I found my snails were having tons of shell problems, and my shrimp were mysteriously dying. I hadn’t checked the ph in months since nothing strange had came up. Well unfortunately, it looks like the substrate was just black painted rocks of various types, and the rocks were buffering my water ph down from 7.8 to below 6.0, which is no bueno for shrimp and snails.

My 50 gallon tank has some black volcanic crushed substrate which I believe is eco complete. Not 100% sure though. I’ve had it in there for years and was gonna get some for my 10 gallon but wanted to see what other options are out there. I’m looking for any black substrate (preferable not painted so paint won’t chip) that won’t buffer my water at all. I’m open to both gravels and sands, just needs to work with both snails and shrimp. Please let me know your suggestions!

 

Imagitarium Black sand from Petco, Fluval stratum, and eco complete are some options. If you have bottom dwellers I recommend the first 2.

 

Imagitarium Black sand from Petco, Fluval stratum, and eco complete are some options. If you have bottom dwellers I recommend the first 2.

Thank you, I will look into these

 

Black dominos blasting sand is 10 dollars for fifty pounds(at TSC). It's pure black. It's illegal to put sharp stuff in blasting sand(make it work les anyways) do don't need to clean it, and it won't do anything to the water and you can add your own sub strait you can get it in smaller portions but that's standard. Also you don't need to replace it after a wile

 

Black dominos blasting sand is 10 dollars for fifty pounds(at TSC). It's pure black. It's illegal to put sharp stuff in blasting sand(make it work les anyways) do don't need to clean it, and it won't do anything to the water and you can add your own sub strait you can get it in smaller portions but that's standard. Also you don't need to replace it after a wile

Thank you! I’ve heard that it can be sharp, will I have to worry about it hurting my snails as they crawl over it?

 

No. It's rounded sand. Like I said it would not work as blasting sand if it had sharp stuff in it, plus that's illegal to make it sharp. It should be good for all bottem dwelling species

 

Anything made of crushed lava rock like eco complete is chemically inert.

 

There is Seachem Flourite black and Flourite black sand.

 

Thank you! I’ve heard that it can be sharp, will I have to worry about it hurting my snails as they crawl over it?

I’ve heard a lot of different answers regarding its texture. I recently got some that I haven’t used in a tank yet but I did spend a lot of time rinsing it. I would say it’s kind of in the middle, to be safe I wouldn’t use it for corys to sift through but I think snails would be perfectly fine.

 

Black dominos blasting sand is 10 dollars for fifty pounds(at TSC). It's pure black. It's illegal to put sharp stuff in blasting sand(make it work les anyways) do don't need to clean it, and it won't do anything to the water and you can add your own sub strait you can get it in smaller portions but that's standard. Also you don't need to replace it after a wile

Did you mean Black Diamond instead of Black Dominos? In any case, I'll agree, it's a great option, and I have it in several tanks, but mine has needed rinsing.

 

Thanks everyone! My search has been narrowed down a lot.

 

Did you mean Black Diamond instead of Black Dominos? In any case, I'll agree, it's a great option, and I have it in several tanks, but mine has needed rinsing.

Ya the autocorrect I'm using is BAD it gets rid of letters and misspells stuff