substrate question
 

Just interested on what type and size of substrate is everyone using?

For my tank i have always used caribsea mix of 0.3 up to 1 with a water flow of 8000glns/hr

Very fine livesand.

If I could go back in time, I would maybe use black sand instead. White sand is hard to keep clean looking.

I am not sure about black as i never used it,i could imagine the look would be nice maybe crisp, i am thinking pitch black (different though)
Never had a problem keeping my white sand clean maybe the high water flow or maybe the sand sifters in my reef.

Mine is white but not pure white. What ever bits fall on it looks dirthy. It does not look clean as black sand. I saw black sand when I went to someone's home not long ago and thought it was really nice looking. It would make the coral pop.

I like white too but I guess I will just have to get more sand snails. I have a few conch on order.

none

My current tank is using sugar sand, and mostly I'm happy with it. I probably should have washed it first, so I have a bit of dust still floating around

substrate
 

sugar sand for my wrasses-cleaned by snails,sand dollar,orange striped gobies.i have used black sand in my berghia tanks-it's a pain to keep clean as the detirus keeps accumilating

Why is black sand a pain to keep clean?

I think most of dirt in the tank is either witish or grey on black sand it will glow nicely.lol

substrate
 

black sand is crushed basalt(volcanic)-white sand is crushed coral(calcium)

Black sand is WAY worse to keep clean looking. It's like a car, black is the worst colour to keep clean, every little speck of dirt sticks out like a lighthouse beacon.

When it's clean though it does look sharp. I have black fluorite in my FW tank and I like the look. Tough choice, I almost went and bought some myself for my new FOWLR tank but think I've let myself be talked out of it for the time being (have heard a few stories about sand sticking to pump impellers because it has metallic content).

As for particle size I find sugar sand gets hard to stay in one spot once we start getting into higher flow .. I like the 0.3 to 1.0 mm sand I'm using now (mix of Caribsea Fiji Pink and Seachem) but it's far too easily shifted around by the flow patterns, I almost wish I went with something larger even.

I don't need any denitrification function out of my sand bed.. I just want it to cover up the bottom silicone seams.