Black Diamond Blasting Sand As Substrate?

[FLFishChik]

   A few months ago, I purchased a 75g aquarium and stand with the intention of getting it up and running by the end of this year... but then life happened. we now find ourselves with a lot less budget for all the bells and whistles than we had and in need of trying to save where possible. Im not willing to skimp on my filtration... but, substrate my save me quite a bit if I can get away with less expensive alternatives.

Curious to hear from those that use/have used this as substrate in their aquariums. I've seen several YouTube vlogs where fish keepers use this as a cheaper alternative to aquarium sand. I am curious as to your experience. My main concerns are:

1) Is it safe for Corydoras and Kuhli loaches

2) I understand that it's inert, but have you had any issues with being able to grow plants in it with good root tabs and ferts?

 

 

[nabokovfan87]

Cc @Odd Duck

So I will say that in my own experience I ran into a bad batch and some issues. OD runs most/all their tanks with BDBS and has for years. I think from all of our discussions that region of where you get the media is critical. It is a recycled, unknown, inconsistent media and it's tough for me to be certain.

What I will say, is that if you put your hand in the bucket when cleaning... after you have gloves and rinse it a ton.... and you're ready to put it into a tank. If anything feels sharp, I would look for something else.

Getting dark/black substrate is thankfully becoming a bit easier.

One of my other major concerns was planting, the weight of the substrate, the amount of flow I like to run, and how easily it gets pushed around.  I don't know how much it would compact and densely hold plants compared to other choices.

[mynameisnobody]

@FLFishChik I’ve used BDBS before and although I love the looks when it’s clean, I hate it when it’s not. Unfortunately you can see all of the poop,food, mulm, etc. This didn’t really make me want to get rid of it. One day, Cory mentioned that although it could used, it could give (my goldfish) any sand sifters tiny mouth ulcers. This was the deciding factor in removing it. I did buy a small magnetic separator in order to remove anything unwanted, but it became too labor intensive, so I just use pool filter sand. 
I also know that the ACO trips to Peru illustrate how our substrate doesn’t need to be silky smooth. Personally, it’s more of an issue if the fish actively sifts the sand, more than anything else. 
Now for the record. I grew Val and dwarf sag with no issues. I popped in 2 ACO root tabs every 30-45 days and we were good to go. 
 

@nabokovfan87 I’m honestly surprised that there isn’t a go to brand for true black sand. Estes makes an excellent black sand, but it’s expensive. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 10/8/2023 at 9:13 PM, mynameisnobody said:

@nabokovfan87 I’m honestly surprised that there isn’t a go to brand for true black sand. Estes makes an excellent black sand, but it’s expensive. 

back in the day, it was nat geo from the big box store. great stuff!

[BlueLineAquaticsSC]

I use a mix of BDBS and the cheap all purpose sand from Lowe’s, plus some hand fills of ransoms sand from my yard. I’ve never had any issues with my fish, including sand sifters. I have not grown any non Rhyzome plants in it though so I can’t speak to that

[gardenman]

Aqua Natural Diamond Black substrate is very nice, but a tad pricey. It comes in two bags. A larger dry bag and then a smaller inoculated wet bag with bacteria starter in it. It's typically $25-$30 for enough for a ten gallon tank. Pricey, but pretty and the inoculated gravel helps speed up cycling. (It worked for me anyway.)

[FLFishChik]

On 10/9/2023 at 11:38 AM, gardenman said:

Aqua Natural Diamond Black substrate is very nice, but a tad pricey. It comes in two bags. A larger dry bag and then a smaller inoculated wet bag with bacteria starter in it. It's typically $25-$30 for enough for a ten gallon tank. Pricey, but pretty and the inoculated gravel helps speed up cycling. (It worked for me anyway.)

Yeah, that would be a bit too expensive for a 75g tank, lol

[Ben P.]

I've used black blasting compounds a few times. I have to say I won't be using it again.  It works fine and everything, just kicks up fine particles into the water column too easily.  Maybe other have had different experiences but I personally didn't like that aspect.  As far as it growing plants I never had any issues.  Granted I use the types of plants that are pretty hard to kill.  If I remember properly I had a 20L with crypts and  dwarf sag.  I tried some other plants that died but more than likely that is my fault more than the plants

[Odd Duck]

I have BDBS in 8 of 28 tanks but I am gradually changing it out of my non-display tanks.  Mostly because it’s a pain to catch fish on in grow out tanks.  I only put it into 4 of my 10 G grow outs because I was planning to breed shrimp in those tanks.  Turns out I’m more interested in fish than shrimp and better at breeding fish than shrimp.  So it doesn’t make sense to keep the sand.  I have learned that I won’t be doing a clay bottom layer with any fish that are the slightest inclined to dig.  You might have noticed the topic I started about the blue eyed lemon plecos.  They have decided to dig holes in my substrate and now that tank is looking like a disaster from the clay layer getting stirred up.  It isn’t the sand that’s the issue, only the clay.

I think sometimes the problem people have is they get the wrong grade of BDBS since it comes in different grades.  The “Fine” is just that, extremely fine sand.  It would be easily stirred up, more difficult to rinse, more likely to compact, etc. The medium certainly can compact, but IME doesn’t get stirred up at all since most of it settles right back down to the bottom if it’s vacuumed up by your siphon.  You can get a lot siphoned up if you’re really disturbing it a lot.  I don’t try to vacuum the sand deeply like I would gravel.  I only skim the surface, or sometimes hold the vacuum above the surface and stir the sand with my other hand so any gas bubbles get siphoned straight out.  I mostly depend on digging snails to keep the sand from compacting and becoming anaerobic, but I do poke around a bit while cleaning to check for gas bubbles accumulating.  If I find any, I poke around a bit more until I’m satisfied there aren’t any more gas pockets.  Sometimes I’ll smell that rotten egg smell if not all of those gas bubbles get grabbed by the siphon, but often there isn’t any smell to the bubbles and they’re completely benign.

There are risks to every substrate.  You have to read enough to figure out which risks are acceptable for your situation.