White Or Black Sand, With Gravel?

I need to make a final decision on what substrate to go with in my new 55 gallon corner acrylic tank. My plan until this morning was to do 90% black sand with 10% white mixed in. However, I'm having second thoughts, because I don't think that will look very natural (not that black sand does, but you get my point). I'm now leaning towards either black sand with a little bit of black gravel sprinkled about, or white sand with natural colored gravel sprinkled about. I like the idea of black sand hiding fish waste, etc, and hate the idea of white sand amplifying it. However, the tank will have 10 Corydora Adolfoi and six Geos (redhead tapajo) constantly sifting through the substrate, so maybe the white sand would stay clean? Also driving my decision to go with a lighter substrate is the piece of driftwood I have turns dark brown when it's wet, so I want some contrast. The three options I'd like to consider are white sand with natural gravel, black sand with natural gravel, or black sand with black gravel. Thoughts?

I already purchased the sand, so I'll pick up a bag of the natural gravel this afternoon and experiment, but wanted to get some opinions, primarily on using white sand and whether it should stay clean with the Cories and Geos constantly sifting through it.

 

Whatever colour sand you go with it’ll eventually end up under the gravel.
Given a choice ( even though you didn’t give a third option) I’d personally go with a natural coloured sand, especially for C.adolfoi as I found mine went a dirty grey when kept on black sand.
White sand in my experience has a tendency to end up a greeny brown colour as algae forms & no amount of cleaning will get it white again, the final decision has to be yours though as you’re the one looking at it every day

 

Whatever colour sand you go with it’ll eventually end up under the gravel.
Given a choice ( even though you didn’t give a third option

The three options I'd like to consider are white sand with natural gravel, black sand with natural gravel, or black sand with black gravel.

When I mentioned sprinkling black gravel on top, I meant exactly that, so the sand sinking to the bottom is a moot point (because it will already be on the bottom). I did this in another tank and liked it. I do think going with a darker substrate would be best since these fish come from murky water, and it would likely help them feel more secure (right?)

 

You’d think so but I find both C.adolfoi & their lookalikes C.duplicareus quite shy no matter the colour of sand or how many plants they have for cover, sorry I’m not being much help with the choice am I

 

I actually have black sand in one of my tanks and I love it. I also have natural colored sand in my other tank because I wanted to try both. There are pros and cons with both colors. However, I personally would avoid white sand as you pointed out it shows everything. It also never stays white due to algae and other natural organics. The black sand really makes live plants pop, but the natural makes the fish pop. Just my opinion.

 

Black sand with natural gravel

 

Just started a new tank with a mix of black and white sand like you described - I'm very happy with the look so far:

 

Whatever you do, I wouldn’t mix sand and gravel. You could always put in some decorative rocks in a contrasting color.