Oceans Direct Live Sand (No big Deal)

[focus]

I don't know about there claims but I haven't seen any difference in the amount of time it takes to cycle a tank. If you went by there instructions you could add livestock the same day. Not true,it has been 10 days and ammonia is almost 0, nitrates on the rise and nitrites peaked. This was curing Marco Rock. I wonder how many people would add livestock before testing and lose everything?

 

[JohnK]

Couple of thoughts here...

First, I've alway been pretty skeptical of the live sand in a bag thing. Gotta wonder how live it is after it sits sealed in a bag on a shelf for 6 months?

Second, even if it were fresh live sand taken directly out of the ocean (with no storage / die off time) I'd expect the ROCK to need some curing time regardless. The sand may well be fill of bacteria, but the dead organics on that rock will need time to cure and I would expect ammonia levels for a while.

Third, I don't trust much of anything on the labels of most reef products. IME/IMO baseless lies are at least as common as helpful or accurate information. Buyer beware....

 

[Miller]

Yea the only bonus I see to buying bagged live sand it that is does not require the rinse, rinse, rinse again process that dry sand does. When we setup our first tank we bought bagged live sand, for the frag tank I said screw that and got dry and and rinsed it.

 

[Sherri]

ohhh .. I forgot about the rinsing, when I set up my 180 I want some areas to be 4 to 5 inches deep... sigh.

 

[focus]

It was great not having a sandstorm, since it was just going in a 28 I figured 1 bag of Ocean Direct and no rinsing. It's almost silly how they market it they give you a little packet you add to the water once the sand is in. Jumps start the bacteria or so they say (not). Looked like corn syrup to me or sucrose of some type?

 

[JohnK]

I've also got to wonder how many of the pounds of sand in the bag are actually lbs of water