Caribsea Arag Alive in an established aquarium

Johnseye · 07/23/2018, 07:36 AM

Has anyone put Arag Alive sand in an established tank? I'm concerned about how the bacteria from this bagged sand will interact with my tank.

AlSimmons · 07/23/2018, 09:23 AM

You shouldn't have any problems IMO. It's basically just sand packaged in a supplement such as CYCLE, BIO-Spira etc.

mcgyvr · 07/23/2018, 05:25 PM

Depending on the amount I'd be cautious and might consider staggering it across a few days or whatever..

"live sand" can contain a sufficient quantity of "dead/decaying" organic material..

But in a healthy tank there should be sufficient bacterial colonies there to stay on top of that and it shouldn't be a problem.. Just use caution and see what happens...
Or just use well rinsed dry sand or rinse the live sand.. There is no reason that you need live sand in an established tank.. Rinse it and enjoy..

Johnseye · 07/24/2018, 07:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcgyvr

Depending on the amount I'd be cautious and might consider staggering it across a few days or whatever..

"live sand" can contain a sufficient quantity of "dead/decaying" organic material..

But in a healthy tank there should be sufficient bacterial colonies there to stay on top of that and it shouldn't be a problem.. Just use caution and see what happens...
Or just use well rinsed dry sand or rinse the live sand.. There is no reason that you need live sand in an established tank.. Rinse it and enjoy..

Thanks, I'm planning on rinsing it. The only reason for buying the live sand is to get the granual size I need.

mcgyvr · 07/24/2018, 08:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johnseye

Thanks, I'm planning on rinsing it. The only reason for buying the live sand is to get the granual size I need.

Then no problem at all..
Rinse the heck out of it and enjoy..

RioReefr · 07/24/2018, 04:11 PM

I don't know if this helps, but this was my experience with switching out gravel substrate with CaribSea Ocean Direct Live Sand Oolite.

I bought a 32G tank second-hand and I would say the person had it several years...towards the end when he sold it to me he did not tank good care of it. BUT, it had established live rock.

Anyway, I did everything in one evening: took the fish out and put in buckets, the same with the corals. I made sure I kept the live-rock wet in newspaper.
I dumped out the old gravel substrate, cleaned out the tank, poured in the Live Sand directly w/o rinsing, added back in the same water with probably 20% new water. Threw in the packet of stabilizer. Waited about 1 hour and literally put everything back into the tank.

My clownfish looked really sad, the female clown literally almost sat at the bottom of the tank. After a couple of hours, the rest of the fish were swimming rapidly in circles around the tank....I suspect there was an ammonia spike/mini-cycle spike (although I did not measure anything). The next morning, all the fish and corals were all back to normal and that white-sand bottom looked awesome.

Lesson learned, I should have rinsed the sand and added in some Bio-Spira bacteria to reduce the mini-cycle. I didn't do that and I think my fish probably suffered some that night....but nothing died and here over 6 months later nothing has died.
If I had to do it again, I probably would keep the fish out of tank in the buckets overnight with an airstone. This would have allowed the tank to settle down/stabilize some before adding the fish back in. In short, if your tank is established you could do everything at the same time in my opinion.

07/23/2018, 07:36 AM	#1
Johnseye Reef Addict Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: Naperville, IL. Posts: 1,196	Caribsea Arag Alive in an established aquarium Has anyone put Arag Alive sand in an established tank? I'm concerned about how the bacteria from this bagged sand will interact with my tank. __________________ - John New 260g build thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2557715 Current Tank Info: 260g reef, Giesemann Spectra MH/T5/Kessil A160, Dastaco CaRx, Vortechs, Lifereef skimmer, Red Dragon 3, Apex, Genesis, Angles, Tang, Trigger, Clowns, Anthias, Wrasses, Cardinals, SPS, LPS

07/23/2018, 05:25 PM	#3
mcgyvr Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: North Carolina Posts: 20,050	Depending on the amount I'd be cautious and might consider staggering it across a few days or whatever.. "live sand" can contain a sufficient quantity of "dead/decaying" organic material.. But in a healthy tank there should be sufficient bacterial colonies there to stay on top of that and it shouldn't be a problem.. Just use caution and see what happens... Or just use well rinsed dry sand or rinse the live sand.. There is no reason that you need live sand in an established tank.. Rinse it and enjoy.. __________________ Who me?

07/23/2018, 09:23 AM	#2
AlSimmons Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2016 Location: California Posts: 2,482	You shouldn't have any problems IMO. It's basically just sand packaged in a supplement such as CYCLE, BIO-Spira etc.

07/24/2018, 04:11 PM	#6
RioReefr Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2017 Location: Rio de Janeiro Posts: 394	I don't know if this helps, but this was my experience with switching out gravel substrate with CaribSea Ocean Direct Live Sand Oolite. I bought a 32G tank second-hand and I would say the person had it several years...towards the end when he sold it to me he did not tank good care of it. BUT, it had established live rock. Anyway, I did everything in one evening: took the fish out and put in buckets, the same with the corals. I made sure I kept the live-rock wet in newspaper. I dumped out the old gravel substrate, cleaned out the tank, poured in the Live Sand directly w/o rinsing, added back in the same water with probably 20% new water. Threw in the packet of stabilizer. Waited about 1 hour and literally put everything back into the tank. My clownfish looked really sad, the female clown literally almost sat at the bottom of the tank. After a couple of hours, the rest of the fish were swimming rapidly in circles around the tank....I suspect there was an ammonia spike/mini-cycle spike (although I did not measure anything). The next morning, all the fish and corals were all back to normal and that white-sand bottom looked awesome. Lesson learned, I should have rinsed the sand and added in some Bio-Spira bacteria to reduce the mini-cycle. I didn't do that and I think my fish probably suffered some that night....but nothing died and here over 6 months later nothing has died. If I had to do it again, I probably would keep the fish out of tank in the buckets overnight with an airstone. This would have allowed the tank to settle down/stabilize some before adding the fish back in. In short, if your tank is established you could do everything at the same time in my opinion.