aragonite sand in my brackish setup

[borgey]

Okay here's the deal, I've got a 25 gallon brackish tank at a sg of 1.005. The tank has been setup with aragonite sand for about 2 years now. I've always had the same substrate in this tank since I converted it to brackish. The thing is I'm really starting to HATE the look of the current aragonite sand that's in it. It is a very white color and I do not think it goes well with what I've got setup in it now. I would really like to change the substrate to another aragonite sand that is more around the color of like a pool filter/silica sand. I just am skeptical about changing the substrate in the tank since I do not want to go into a mini cycle or have my tank crash. Not too sure if that would happen but I'm sure there's a good amount of bacteria in the sand. Another issue is I'm not even sure if there's a good aragonite sand for sale that has the kind of natural brownish color that pool filter sand has. Does anyone have any suggestions on a particular sand that has that type of look? I do have 2 filters on the tank ( aquaclear 50&30 ) that should have a good amount of BB in them to maybe 'seed' the new substrate. One more thing I've been thinking about but can't seem to find a solid answer for is, how long does the aragonites sand buffering capabilities last for? Is it something that'll last forever or do people change the substrate for this very reason? Anyways thanks for taking the time to read this post. I look forward to hearing everyone's replies.

[Pufferpunk]

As long as your filter is established & healthy, you're good to go.

[RTR]

CaribSea offers a variety of aragonite sands. None of them are really "colors" (not strong colors, "shades" would be a better term), but a number are not white and certainly do not give the effect of white sand. I use a lot of the "Bermuda Pink" variety myself.

If you maintain your biofilters regularly and do not kill the bacteria on them, they should house most of you nitrification bacteria. The substrate - if shallow (all that is needed in most BW setups) - should not have any significant percentage of those bacteria.

HTH

[borgey]

Okay cool I figured I would be okay since the filters have a good amount of BB in them. I don't think I've killed of any BB in the filters. Usually for maintenance I'll rinse squeeze out the sponge in a big bowl of tank water and I'll put the ceramic rings in the water also and kind of swoosh them around. Other than that I'll clean the actual filter in my sink but I never let the media come in contact with the tap water. So I don't think I've killed any BB like I said earlier. I got a 10 gallon I think I'll put my F8 in with the two filters while I change out the substrate. I do like that Bermuda Pink shade , do you have any pictures of it in a tank by any chance RTR?

[RTR]

I am not a photographer at all, sorry. But that is my most-used BW or SW substrate.