is this stuff reef safe ? CaribSea Tahitian (black) moon sand
 

I'm thinking of doing a layer of black sand in my tank anyone have experience with this? CaribSea Tahitian (black) moon sand? Is it safe for gobies and tangs/wrasse's ? Reef safe?

put a magnet in it if its magnetic dont use it , its crashed two of my friends tanks recently and i told them both not to use it, both were magnetic :)

black sand
 

it gets dirty really fast,you'll be constantly siphoning detritus off it

I am using it right now since I want a different look from the normal white sand. It looks good but can get dirty fast like monocus has said.

Just wondering how you can confirm it was the sand. People use it all the time.

Well the sand is definitely magnetic, I used it in my cube, after about 6 months it began turning brown from what I assume to be it oxidizing and yes definitely gets dirty fast. It does look nice though.

Ya from what I am reading there two types of this sand and one is magnetic and the others not. It depends on we're it comes from.

one case was my roommates tank , we added the sand within a month we were dealing with dying anemones , dying corals , dinos followed and then eventually we siphoned the sand out , immediate change and is now bare bottom , as soon as the sand was removed all issues were gone shortly afterwards.


the other was a friend of mine who transfered to a new tank the only change was adding the moon sand instead of the usual stuff.



and thats what me and the roomate learned as well , there are two types ones magnetic and the other isnt , the magnetic stuff has problems posted all over various places.

Where does one get the GOOD stuf from? I want to use it in my 300..

The threads in the past on this site and others about this sand has me pretty much convinced.

This is interesting. Has anyone actually contacted a manufacturer or seen a recall or anything.

You see lots of fingers point after one guy cried wolf.

Just wondering. It is sold in many places and you would think after a while the issues would reach the makers.

So again... Has anyone ever asked the manufacturer ?

From what I read online it says the stuff collected from Hawaii is magnetic and the true tahiti sand is not. From my personal view I would say it depends on how "old" the sand is because it being volcanic it has a high level of minerals in it but the older sand is the more minerals will be "washed out" being heavyer. Anything magnetic would be bad for a tank because it out contain chrome,nickel,carbon that will rust or oxides in your tank.

When I bought it it didnt say reef safe on the bag. But I took a chance anyway. It says aquarium safe just not saltwater safe. So I think its kind of a "buyer beware" type of situation. I suffered no ill effects aside from the oxidizing in my tank and magnetism. I personally asked many people on many forums their experience with it and no one told me of any crashing etc. Just the same issues I reported here.

Another option might be the CaribSea Indo-Pacific Black, second one down.

http://www.caribsea.com/itempage_mar..._aragalive.htm

Think the best thing to do is take a rare earth magnet with u and test the bag befor u buy it. If it magnetic I think it would be like sticking a chunk of carbon steal in your tank