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is moon sand a good substrate for african cichlids does it provide a high ph?

its solid black, does NOT buffer PH at all. so your tank will stay the same PH as it was before you put it in. its fairly heavy so once bacteria grows on it the tank doesnt fog up when fish swim over it. and my cories love it

First off, blank moon sand does not raise the pH of the water.

Second, I have heard of black sand being a problem with the gills of some fish. I'm not sure if its through something it releases into the water or through fish spitting it out their gills. I don't remember exactly what it does, but I believe it is something worth looking into.

hmm well it doesn't change pH, but as for fish compatibility theres mixed reviews. It seems to be fine for sins corys, but in my 75G with tahitian moon sand, i lost two whiptail catfish to internal hemmorhaging which i can only link to the sand they continualy sifted through, as well as a whole school of corys approx 8 months after they had been in the tank. so i don't mean to scare you of becuase its a gorgeous substrate, jsut saying that as to what its effects on fish are seem to be debatable. so my guess would be that its a trial and error thing where sometimes it doesn't hurt your fish and sometimes it does.

HTH
Megil

Why would black sand in particular be a problem for fishes? Excess sediment is taken in in front of the gills and spat back out, and fish are pretty good (in general), at not swallowing substrate. Whiptail hemoraging has little to do with sand. Having kept both farows and true whips (sturistomes) in a 75 gallon with a 100% sand substrate, I can vouch against this. In fact, in their natural habitat, the substrate IS coarse silt, resulting from the fast water movemnt. Also,

Last edited by Cup_of_Lifenoodles at 04-Feb-2005 18:52