Arag-Alive! Sand

[Greg129]

Does anyone have Arag-Alive! sand in their reef? Do you like it?

 

[integlikewhoa]

I love it. Its a bit pricey for some and some mix half and half. But i recommend it. Im not so sure its so alive like they claim. BUt i would say better then not alive at all.

 

[Dubbin1]

Mnay people have it but IMO it is a waste of money. Just use dry sand and your LR will turn it into LS in no time.

 

[jasper24]

I have used it several times. I like it because I am impatient and do not want to rinse and rinse normal sand to prevent a dust storm in my tank. You just place it in the tank and add water.

 

[KingSpade]

i just put 240lbs of the bahama oolite in my 125 gallon last night. it still clouds up though but it is a ver nice looking fine grade sand

 

[KingSpade]

oh heres a pic of the cludiness, i think everything no matter what you use will cloud up though.

 

[Greg129]

I have both Arag-alive! and the dry aragonite. I already have water in my tank so which should I use?

 

[KingSpade]

i would use the alive, as it will have more beneficial bacteria in it than the dry will, i dont know exactly how "live" the stuff is but i would suspect it to me more so than the dry.

 

[conda]

I use 75% dry aragonite and 25% arag alive. This is for a bacteria jump start. The arag alive only has the bacteria, not the worms and other critters that live sand has.

 

[Dubbin1]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6808479#post6808479 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by KingSpade
oh heres a pic of the cludiness, i think everything no matter what you use will cloud up though.

Here is my tank when I was adding the water. It is southdown right out of the bag and not rinsed. As you can see there is no sand storm.

As you can see there is a trick to it.

 

[The Reefer91]

conda is right. Arag Alive! doesn't have the creatures that LS has. just bactieria. you can purchase some of these creatures, but it still won't be LS

 

[Greg129]

Thanks for the posts. So I should go with the 75% dry and 25% arag-alive? Should I put the dry in first then the arag-alive?

 

[Dubbin1]

Save your money and just use the dry sand. Like I said, the LR will turn the sand live in no time flat.

 

[sundance1]

I used 240 pounds of Arag-Alive in my 125.My local fish store sold it to me at $1.00 a pound!Naturally I spend a ton of money there for my other stuff,lol.I love it!

 

[Greg129]

My live rock has been fully cured. It was used on a previous tank. Wouldn't that slow down the process of making the sand live? Especially since I have no copepods.

 

[sundance1]

If ya bought it as Live Rock and have any ammount of it,you should have some pods.I just got a 1" piece of zoos attached to rock and while acclimating it,saw many small pods in the container.

 

[RichConley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6808820#post6808820 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Greg129
My live rock has been fully cured. It was used on a previous tank. Wouldn't that slow down the process of making the sand live? Especially since I have no copepods.

Nobody has NO copepods. Well, I'm sure some do, but if your rock came in from a tank, or ocean, and hasnt been sitting dry for months, it has copepods.

 

[conda]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6808820#post6808820 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Greg129
My live rock has been fully cured. It was used on a previous tank. Wouldn't that slow down the process of making the sand live? Especially since I have no copepods.

Yes, it will be slower by not using LS, but not because the rock is fully cured, but because your sand is not live yet.

I just bought fully cured LR and placed it into my new tank. Within two days I saw hundreds, if not thousands, of pods running around the rocks, fuge, and glass. But my sand it still dead.

Pods do not themselves make live sand. Live sand from the ocean has all kinds of critters, seen and unseen, that make the sand live--not just pods. You may want to seed your sand bed with live sand from a fellow reefer or purchase it online.

Regarding your pods, when the lights are off, take a flashlight and shine it on the rocks and glass, you will see what looks like white microscopic bugs crawling all over. Those are the pods. They are hard to see, but if you look closely you will see them. You may also see bigger pods that look like small shrimp.

 

[Dubbin1]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6809205#post6809205 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by conda
Live sand from the ocean has all kinds of critters, seen and unseen, that make the sand live--not just pods.

It is the bacteria that makes our LR and LS live, not the critters.

 

[Johnsteph10]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6809246#post6809246 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Dubbin1
It is the bacteria that makes our LR and LS live, not the critters.

Correct. The critters are just sand-sifters. If you really want to speed up the process of turning your sand into LS, just get a big scoop from a friend with an established sandbed. You'll also likely get a bunch of the sand sifting critters, too.

"Live" sand is just one of the big wastes of money in this industry.