Black Sand Ok for Reef?

[Zoalander]

I started cycling a 55 FO tank but I just decided I'm going to make it a reef tank but as a substrate I got black sand. Would it be ok? I starter adding purple-up for calcium and iodine but I dont want to run into problems later on. I do like the way it looks but I was wondering what you guys think.

[tmantaylor18]

where is this sand from?

[CA]

It doesn't provide any useful level of buffering. A lot of people have told me it turns gray and looks dirty as it builds up the normal junk from a tank.

[Ludwigia73]

Ive got black sand in my 18 gallon, and it makes the colors of my corals just pop! Only problem is, it absorbs light instead of reflecting it like white sand does, so you need a lot more light. I'm running (2) 96w quad 18" pc's over it, and my brain on the bottom is growing quickly. Xenia are going nuts, cinnamon polyps are growing/budding, and zoos are spreading. I'll be adding a frag of my frogspawn later this month, to see if I can do it.

[secrest]

My friend has black sand in his 125, it looked good for about three months. Then all of a sudden it started turning grey. He ended up taking it all out because it looked like a swamp

[Travis L. Stevens]

What cleanup crew was he using? was it detritus buildup on the sand?