The Puffer Forum

So I am a big fan of black substrate in my tanks, I usually use colorquartz t grade or flourite black if it will be planted but for my fahakas 180 gallon that will be just too expensive for me right now at $.75+/lb. I have tried normal black gravel from a couple local fish shops and the paint came off, actually killed one fish(suffocated him over 20 hours) took another 2 weeks before I figured out it was the paint coming off the gravel. I know some people use black diamond blasting media, I have been scared to use this myself as I read it can be very sharp.
His current tank just has pea gravel in it from home depot, but it is larger gravel than I would like.

Does anyone have any black substrate suggestions?

Some places like Amazon and Petco sell black sand, but I'd imagine it'd be a bit pricey. Honestly, it's probably going to be expensive to fill that entire tank with black substrate.

nothing other than you have already mentioned. I use the black fluorite sand and am very happy with it. Just think of it as a one time splurge.

I was hoping to find something cheaper, colorquartz will run me about $160 for 200lbs, something like flourite black or tahition moon sand would be closer to $250 for 180 lbs. Maybe I will have to consider something a different color natural color can be decent as well. Maybe I should consider pool filter sand, never been a big fan of sand though as most of my fish will kick sand all over the place including into filter intakes.

A lot of people use play sand from home deopt or lowes, or pool filter sand. You just gotta rinse the stuff REALLY good and stir really good when you're doing your weekly cleaning. Hope you find something that works well for you! =]

when I had my 500 gal, I used mostly black fluorite sand with some black eco complete. When that was broken down I saved it in some buckets and re-did my new tanks with it.

it is a large investment but the final outcome is worth it. If you can't go for the dream, wait a while until you can. Re-doing the tank is more of a pain than you can imagine.

I gotta agree with having to re-do the tank. I remember my switch from stones to sand. I HATED it. I stood up on my chair (because the stand is miles high and I am vertically challenged) scooping stones out with a net, for a little over an hour.

oh ya, with 16 tanks I know the pain of redoing one, had several that had the blue-green "sea color mix" all of those have been redone to be either black or natural. Maybe I'll just have to postpone putting him in the 180 a little longer til I get the colorquartz, I really like the t grade, not quite as fine as sand and sinks immeadiately when kicked up unlike the s grade which is like sugar sand.

I agree it's best to definitely go with heavier grades of sand. I killed 3 impellers on my old filter with the first sand I had.

in FW you really only need 1" (1 inch). Anything more than that will create aerobic pockets and cause a nasty smell. A fahaka will also re-arrange the decor to his or her liking. Just go with the flow. As I have been told: Your fish will tell you what it needs and wants. Observation is the key here.

ya but to stick plants in I have found 1" just isn't quite enough if it is lightweight/small grain, never noticed any aerobic pockets in gravel before, thought that was only with sand? There will be some plants in there, not sure how many or what kind other than they will be low light/low maintanence, I have decided over the years that I absolutely hate fake plants. I have found osmocote capsules to do wonders for plants even in garbage substrate like plain gravel or colorquartz.

LOL!! your fahaka is the best landscaper you will find in FW. It is all trial and error (and more error than trial).

oh I'm sure, so far he likes the way his 75 is then as he hasn't rearranged anything in there. The best fw landscaper I ever had was a jack dempsey 25 years ago, that fish used to just piss me off with his rearranging, actually come to think of it, every cichlid I ever had was a landscaper and didn't seem to like things the way I wanted them.

Black Diamond sandblasting sand from Tractor Supply.