ManotheSea
New member
This may catch me some slack from others but I will explain.
I guess I am biased with a strong opposition to live sand that sits on a store shelf for several months. I dont have any hard statistical facts to support my bias but I can apply my best common sense.
My feeling is that store shelf bagged live sand is a bad product that doesnt live up to what it proposes to be. It causes a lot of Reefers months of head ache and unnecessary problems with over blown algae. I think it jump starts a cycle but does not help the cycle to end sooner. It seems that it starts the cycle by adding a lot of dead organic stuff into the tank. You could do the same with a bag of rotten shrimp from the supermarket dumped into your new tank if you wanted to. Mix some play ground sand with the dead bag of shrimp and I bet you will have the same effect as bagged live sand. Ammonia, Nitrites ending in high Nitrates that cause series after series of algae blooms.
I have yet to see anything alive in shelved bagged sand. What I have seen is many many people suffering through long bouts of intense algae explosions after using it. I think that is where the idea comes from that a tank needs to be 6 mos to a year old before it stabilizes. There is no needed to suffer so long when using other sand.
Lets apply some easy logic. How can anything live in a bag on a shelf for several months? It cant. Its a bag of organic rot. How do they keep the bag from stinking to heck when you open it? Is a preservative used? If I bag some live sand and leave it sit for two weeks I bet it will knock you to the ground when you open it and smell the dead stench. Do they have a magic bag of sand or is there more than meets the eye here?
If you use fresh sand to fill or seed a new tank you wont get a cycle and you wont have algae blooms like those brought on by bagged sand. There are many small online stores that do their own collecting from FL reefs. They used to only supply the nations wholesalers. Now they can also sell to the public due to the internet. Their live sand will be as fresh as the day they took it from the ocean when you put it in your tank. You will also see life forms against the glass within a few weeks with fresh sand. You wont see that with bagged sand. Use a friends donation of sand to seed your dry sand and it will work as well.
I have seen SPS added on the second day to a new tank set up with seeded dry sand. The seeded bacteria laden sand needs time to spread and take hold so fish were slowly added after a week or two. No cycle SPS tank.
I dont know why this easy common sense method is not offered more often to new Reefers. Maybe we feel that its a right of passage that must be attained by all since most of us had to endure the suffering of horrible algae outbreaks it in our pasts. More likely its something that we endure then put behind us with little more than a passing thought while we focus on the next challange that confronts us in attaining our dream tanks.
I think store shelf bagged live sand should go the route of bio balls. I may get knocked down or gently pursuaded from these ideas in the face of more facts but this is where I stand right now. Fresh live sand or seeded dry sand is the only way to go.
Has anyone done any comparible testing on this subject?
.
I guess I am biased with a strong opposition to live sand that sits on a store shelf for several months. I dont have any hard statistical facts to support my bias but I can apply my best common sense.
My feeling is that store shelf bagged live sand is a bad product that doesnt live up to what it proposes to be. It causes a lot of Reefers months of head ache and unnecessary problems with over blown algae. I think it jump starts a cycle but does not help the cycle to end sooner. It seems that it starts the cycle by adding a lot of dead organic stuff into the tank. You could do the same with a bag of rotten shrimp from the supermarket dumped into your new tank if you wanted to. Mix some play ground sand with the dead bag of shrimp and I bet you will have the same effect as bagged live sand. Ammonia, Nitrites ending in high Nitrates that cause series after series of algae blooms.
I have yet to see anything alive in shelved bagged sand. What I have seen is many many people suffering through long bouts of intense algae explosions after using it. I think that is where the idea comes from that a tank needs to be 6 mos to a year old before it stabilizes. There is no needed to suffer so long when using other sand.
Lets apply some easy logic. How can anything live in a bag on a shelf for several months? It cant. Its a bag of organic rot. How do they keep the bag from stinking to heck when you open it? Is a preservative used? If I bag some live sand and leave it sit for two weeks I bet it will knock you to the ground when you open it and smell the dead stench. Do they have a magic bag of sand or is there more than meets the eye here?
If you use fresh sand to fill or seed a new tank you wont get a cycle and you wont have algae blooms like those brought on by bagged sand. There are many small online stores that do their own collecting from FL reefs. They used to only supply the nations wholesalers. Now they can also sell to the public due to the internet. Their live sand will be as fresh as the day they took it from the ocean when you put it in your tank. You will also see life forms against the glass within a few weeks with fresh sand. You wont see that with bagged sand. Use a friends donation of sand to seed your dry sand and it will work as well.
I have seen SPS added on the second day to a new tank set up with seeded dry sand. The seeded bacteria laden sand needs time to spread and take hold so fish were slowly added after a week or two. No cycle SPS tank.
I dont know why this easy common sense method is not offered more often to new Reefers. Maybe we feel that its a right of passage that must be attained by all since most of us had to endure the suffering of horrible algae outbreaks it in our pasts. More likely its something that we endure then put behind us with little more than a passing thought while we focus on the next challange that confronts us in attaining our dream tanks.
I think store shelf bagged live sand should go the route of bio balls. I may get knocked down or gently pursuaded from these ideas in the face of more facts but this is where I stand right now. Fresh live sand or seeded dry sand is the only way to go.
Has anyone done any comparible testing on this subject?
.
