Black Diamond Blasting Sand as Aquarium Substrate
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- Опубліковано 23 січ 2025
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Black Diamond blasting sand is amazing stuff for aquariums. Just make sure you Wash it very well. It Is coal Slag black sand does make your fish colors Pop white sand kind of bleaches them out. Great video.
This was one of the videos I watched when I was on the fence about going with BDBS two years ago and I'm glad I did. For one this stuff is dirty, I washed out about a half bag at a time and took about twenty minutes for each bucket I did, also it will leave a slick on the water surface of your tank for a while, but over time and doing weekly water changes it was gone in a few months, so surface agitation is your friend.
I bought 4 bags, and it took forever to wash all the bags out (because it was 8-10 buckets loads), I put two and 1/2 bags in my 75gal Mbuna tank and one full bag in my 55 gal with Angel fish and other S. American cichlids to get my desired depth.
Now after two years with the tanks still up and running with the same fish I can say other than how dirty the stuff is coming out of the bag, I have not one bad thing to say about it, fish poops will stay on top of it like it would with sand, but with Mbuna constantly moving things around and a strategically placed wave maker, the detritus will make its way to the filter intake.
Overall, I would recommend anyone who wants black substrate on a budget to give it a try, you will not be disapointed.
@@scottgordin9709 completely agree!
I use it in all my dirted planted tanks, it really makes the plants stand out!
I've been using this sand for quite a while now I use it in my 36 gallon bow front and soon to be in my 125 African cichlid tank
Almost 15 years with blasting sand. Never once have I needed to use a gravel vac.
Is it heavy enough that when you vacuum your gravel it doesn’t get sucked up ?
@@FlWeekendAngler I've never had to gravel vac with it.... but it's right on the limit of being heavy enough to stay in place and not go up a gravel vac.
Whaaaaaaat ??? For real? I’m brand new to this hobby and trying to ingest all the info I can from many sources. But I’m incredulous to read that you never had to gravel vac this type of sand. That’s amazing!
Yo bruh I really enjoyed your video/tutorial on the black diamond blasting sand. I'm about to pickup some bandit Cichlids which are similar to Geo's that sift thru the sand. It took no time to clean it and along with these yellowish tan colored river rocks my tank is gonna look fantastic. Also that background you got is perfect with your scheme. Thanks for posting and I'll be checking out your other videos.
Thanks man and good luck with yours
This stuff is amazing, if you aren't going to have fish in the tank yet don't worry about washing it, a few water changes will clean up the water.
We’re here in Conway and I recently came across videos about using black diamond so I picked up a bag yesterday at TS for our turtle tank. Looking forward to switching it out. Your setup looks great! Good info! 🤙🏼
the sand is definitely gonna be in one of my tanks for sure!! great set up too!!
We have the same substrate in our tank and it works very well. I love the river rock additions - may have to steal that. Ciclids are good fish although Oscars ,what we have, are very aggressive. We have two in our 50 gallon tank. We also had Neon Tetras at one time and it was neat to see them school with each other and Kristin may like those as they are cute and pretty. Since you have had fish you probably know which fish are aggressive and which ones are not and to get a fish that helps clean the tank as well. I think what you have so far in your tank set up looks great and I can't wait to see what you end up with.
Just bought two bags for my new 60 gallon, thanks for your knowledge 😊😊😊
I love this stuff but it's scratches my tank when I scrub the glass near the substrate
I use it in my tanks & it holds the nitrogen plant's need to feed on
I won't use anything other than bdbs> black diamond blasting sand
it makes plant's look better & easy to clean, but if your going to put
plant's in the tank you need at least 3 inches of substrate for them.
add 1" of potting soil underneath the sand for the plants to thrive. Check out FatherFish for more instructions
Do you have any active or aqua soil type substrate under your black diamond blasting sand?
I’m surprised I don’t see anyone even mentioning the seemingly endless oil that comes out of this sand when rinsed. I’ve rinsed 2 buckets of it at least 50 times and oil is still coming out. A noticeable oil slick on the surface of the water.
Have you noticed any other down sides to this substrate? How do snails and other bottom dwellers do?
It's looking really nice. Can't wait to see the end result.
I'm going with a black gravel sand was thinking of mixing in some coffee color medium sized gravel? 🤔
May I ask what kind or brand of black gravel sand did you go with? Thx.
Wow did I make a mistake. Don't know how I could do this but forgot to rinse this stuff before throwing it in as a cap for dirt. Do you think the filter will eventually remove the dust out of the water? If not I'll have to remove all of it and start over. 😩
did the water get really cloudy? how is it looking now?
@@Chris_Graham
Everything worked out fine, tank cycles nicely and is full of plants and it's first few 🐠!
Nice size tank are you doing a topical or marine tank. Sea water tanks look amazing but alot harder to maintain. Will look great when you're done
It will be fresh water
It's very pretty but it's also very heavy by comparison to sand and volcanic rock. Less water volume for the fish.
How is it less water volume then anything else? Honest question if you take 2 inches of space with diamond blasting sand or 2 inches with any other sand or graves thats still 2 inches of less space for the fish to swim correct?
Deffo got a point. I just figured it would be like rocks. Some rocks are big and light taking up less volume and some are small and heavy taking up quite alot. I'm a fan of the filthy mbuna so water volume is very important. I keep only 8 in a 75 gallon with sand and lots of volcanic rock. Figure I lose about a 1/4 gallon. But I got the metric system. I don't know what a quarter pounder is.
What kind of air stone do you use with this substrate? I’m asking around with everyone who uses it, I don’t want something that will kick all the sand around
Lol you just gave me another idea on setting up my 20 long tank
I currently have about an inch of pool filter sand in my 55 gallon tank. and it works find but it looks pretty boring. I'm thinking of moving to blasting sand but was wondering if I could mix the pool filter and the blasting sand. has anyone done this? Will it mix well?
Yea you can if you want to blend the two color’s together
you need at least 2" minimum friend.
Thank you!!!! Awesome tank!!
Great video I been wash it really really really good and put in tank today how long it take cloud go away?
24 hours
@@Chris_Graham thanks man
The only stuff I can find at Tractor supply it does not say coal in red it says slag. No one has bags that say coal.
same
Blasting sand is coal slag. Just be sure to get medium grit.
@@eveningclicks7767Why medium grit? Any finer and it will kick up and swirl around from any movement - I’m guessing?
@@echo4491 yes and it would be too fine to allow poo to sink into the substrate for plants.
Fantastic beard! Now to continue watching the video.
Chris they have caribsea Hawaiian sand it's black
I'm doing same thing but with a saltwater fish tank
Yeah my Black Diamond Sand isn't black mine came out brown after I washed it in only water lmao I'm not sure what went wrong but I'm let others know with this same message on other videos about this sand.
Thats weird, was it from tractor supply? Was it the same brand I bought? How many times has this happened? How many bags have you bought and washed?
@@Chris_Graham Uhh another UA-camr mentioned that the grit fine is gonna be brown messed up thing is like I guess when you assume and you don't know any better and your order online to go pick it up in the store the bags you'd think were both gonna be black sand but there not. Also the bag I bought was 40lb not 50. and they're both the same price.
@@FishingFloridaWater so buy the same bag i bought, the one i showed in the video and it will be black.
@@Chris_Graham my 30 gallon tank is already setup with 40lbs of the brown sand cleaning that alone took me a couple of hours. I found a easy and faster way was to use a pillowcase to put the sand in and on the water run through the sand till it was clear water
Looking good coming out real nice brother
aquarium great Blasting sand
Blasting sand and pool filter sand are both manufactured sand. Meaning they are crushed rock. They have sharp edges and are not good for fish that dig or borrow or eat the sand. You want play sand ! Play sand is natural and has been rounded and polished in a river or lake .
I'm Indian Sand Blasting ₹
You live in a beautiful area !! I use Bleach diamond
I use black diamond it's great