CaribSea Arag-Alive claims no rinsing needed and fast clear water - is it legit?
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steveschuerger
I love Gonis and Euphyllia. Maybe too much
I’ve used CaribSea sand several times and yes, it does get cloudy. It come with a small packet of water clarifier that’s safe for tank residents. Just added sand a couple days ago. Stayed cloudy a few hours but cleared pretty quickly. Did rinse it with water from tank when I changed some water though.
Fort Salty
Community Member
Can you just ask your lfs if they can order some dead sand for you? It may be cheaper since you want to rinse out the "live" part. I for one had no issues and have very clear water now. (Well, besides the occasional antics of my pistol shrimp)
Lfs place orders regularly and can probably get what you want if you ask.
FS
Lfs place orders regularly and can probably get what you want if you ask.
FS
tydeck
Active Member
And you support a local business. Save on shipping.
Lol. Having a fifty page thread on washing a bag of sand is hilarious.
I just did an entire tank reboot. I added the sand after water testing buy cutting open the bag at the top dropping entire bag to the bottom and slowly dumping out the sand (NOTE Carribsea includes some “packets” of water clarifier in with the sand that I had to dig around and remove). I installed filter socks and ran gyre pumps and return, took about 2 days to clear. Never did use the “water clarifier packets”.
hey nice job getting lucky
if you had a problem in cycling due to live rock bacteria killed off by some holding condition during the move, one of the symptoms that would manifest in your tank tank made from the old biomedia is water clouding
you'd have a cloudy tank with no reason to be cloudy, we expect cloud from unrinsed sand always.
cycled reefs carry bioload in clear water
problem cycle reefs get cloudy
so by instating 48 guaranteed hours of sand clouding, for no gain, you had to get lucky that no real symptoms were happening/you couldnt see if they happened to take remedial action in time
Pre rinsed setups always transfer safely, for everyone. Some systems don't clear in 48 hours, we fix those ahead of time by pre rinsing
if you had a problem in cycling due to live rock bacteria killed off by some holding condition during the move, one of the symptoms that would manifest in your tank tank made from the old biomedia is water clouding
you'd have a cloudy tank with no reason to be cloudy, we expect cloud from unrinsed sand always.
cycled reefs carry bioload in clear water
problem cycle reefs get cloudy
so by instating 48 guaranteed hours of sand clouding, for no gain, you had to get lucky that no real symptoms were happening/you couldnt see if they happened to take remedial action in time
Pre rinsed setups always transfer safely, for everyone. Some systems don't clear in 48 hours, we fix those ahead of time by pre rinsing
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Reef Psychology
Active Member
Man, who knew to rinse or not to rinse was controversial? Not I.
My experience in research is mostly in behavioral psych, but the methodology is similar to the other sciences and @brandon429 isn't wrong. Since we neither have the tools nor the expertise to examine these sorts of claims, most of this isn't even 'academic', it's anecdotal. Of course experience matters - it's critical.
I believe that in brand new tanks with no higher animals yet in it, the 'cloudiness' may actually be beneficial or at least informative. I live near a coastal bay and I see the sand churned up for a few hours with every high tide. You can see it like a dark wall at the mouth of the bay. I would think it would be just another place for bacteria to attach and cling everywhere in our tanks. And, when it finally settles, it is visual evidence that bacteria is proliferating. In the 15+ tanks I have set up with live sand I've never experienced any issues. When I used Aragonite dry sand I've actually seen cycles take longer by sometimes a few weeks. That's not proof of anything - it's just my experience.
Anyway, if you want to rinse or not rinse it, I don't think it matters that much. Me, I'm lazy and don't like hunching over buckets of sand, so I'll just dump it in and double the filter floss. If you want your water clear in a few hours vs a few days, all the power to you. Just don't over pay for a 'perk' you're not going to use.
My experience in research is mostly in behavioral psych, but the methodology is similar to the other sciences and @brandon429 isn't wrong. Since we neither have the tools nor the expertise to examine these sorts of claims, most of this isn't even 'academic', it's anecdotal. Of course experience matters - it's critical.
I believe that in brand new tanks with no higher animals yet in it, the 'cloudiness' may actually be beneficial or at least informative. I live near a coastal bay and I see the sand churned up for a few hours with every high tide. You can see it like a dark wall at the mouth of the bay. I would think it would be just another place for bacteria to attach and cling everywhere in our tanks. And, when it finally settles, it is visual evidence that bacteria is proliferating. In the 15+ tanks I have set up with live sand I've never experienced any issues. When I used Aragonite dry sand I've actually seen cycles take longer by sometimes a few weeks. That's not proof of anything - it's just my experience.
Anyway, if you want to rinse or not rinse it, I don't think it matters that much. Me, I'm lazy and don't like hunching over buckets of sand, so I'll just dump it in and double the filter floss. If you want your water clear in a few hours vs a few days, all the power to you. Just don't over pay for a 'perk' you're not going to use.
I don't rinse this kind of sand. It's supposed to be added without rinsing. It comes often with a small bag of chemical to quickly fix any couldy issues. Even though I never used lt.
I only rinse dry sand, to remove fines.
This is one day after pouring water.
I only rinse dry sand, to remove fines.
This is one day after pouring water.
EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal
Just another girl who likes fish
I was planning to use dry (Fiji pink) sand for my new build, but at the time, the live version was about 30% less expensive (strange, I know!) so I bought bags of that instead. I do plan to rinse it before using because 1) I didn't like the cloudy water when I used it last time, and 2) it's likely that the bacteria they add doesn't actually survive in saltwater (the water in the bag isn't salt...) so if anything it helps the nitrogen cycle by adding an ammonia source.
(Of course I might get lazy and just toss in the DE filter
)
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There’s ketchup on a hotdog and then there’s not pre rinsing sand
we know that it’ll clear usually always but it’s 48 hours with the fly down at an out of town business convention, its a gravy stain on the tie barely concealed by day three, there’s cufflinks clean as one option, and then there’s winging it without ever trimming the nose hairs mode. There’s uncouth vs couth
to me that’s the essence of rinse vs no rinse lol
we know that it’ll clear usually always
but it’s 48 hours with the fly down at an out of town business convention, its a gravy stain on the tie barely concealed by day three, there’s cufflinks clean as one option, and then there’s winging it without ever trimming the nose hairs mode. There’s uncouth vs couthto me that’s the essence of rinse vs no rinse lol
See that stratified top layer of silt
each time you lift the rock to clean it wafts around
it complexes to other waste as high fraction silt
rinse eeet out before you pile costly life on it
a reef that has simply no clouding potential runs better long term
each time you lift the rock to clean it wafts around
it complexes to other waste as high fraction silt
rinse eeet out before you pile costly life on it
a reef that has simply no clouding potential runs better long term
Reef Psychology
Active Member
It's probably stratified because there was no flow and nothing to filter it.
That would be some interesting data to see with an N above a few thousand.
I’ve always had good luck with Arag-Alive
I started my new setup/transfer on the morning of Sept 29th with unrinsed Arag-Alive.
Here was a couple hours after setup, at 3pm on Sept 29th
Here it was three hours later, around 6pm on Sept 29th.
Here is how clear it was a couple days later on October 1st
I added their bio-clarifier to help speed up the process. I also don’t use filter socks or mechanical filtration, so I’d imagine it would clear up even quicker in a tank that does.
I started my new setup/transfer on the morning of Sept 29th with unrinsed Arag-Alive.
Here was a couple hours after setup, at 3pm on Sept 29th
Here it was three hours later, around 6pm on Sept 29th.
Here is how clear it was a couple days later on October 1st
I added their bio-clarifier to help speed up the process. I also don’t use filter socks or mechanical filtration, so I’d imagine it would clear up even quicker in a tank that does.
Really its a good pico, Maritza the vase reef wouldn’t rinse her vase sandbed and its done fine for nine years now/ mvr on YouTube / very top shelf pico reef like that round one above can be for sure. there simply isn’t benefit in sandbed bacteria, it’s why bare bottom reefs don’t die. Sandbed non rinsers are retaining something that is of neutral impact to a reef tank, we have n=20000 for rip cleans which are sandbed tap water rinses to complete cloudlessness working out just fine.
not rinsing will never work in a real work thread for the public, the author will be apologizing for wrecked setups every few pages. What I would love to see is a multipage guided sandbed procedure thread where nobody rinses, ever, for any type of sandbed job,
we investigated the extreme side of de silting
someone now should investigate the side of having all entrants for help in upgrades, moves and tank transfers not rinse one time ever and regain all original silt plus all accumulated sandbed organics, a no rinsing work thread.
By page twenty, madness heh
work threads are excellent procedural best practice filters, if our advice wrecks someone’s tank it’s a painful public accounting. pre rinsing all substrate is the strongest demo’d method in reefing, it’s logged results are excellent and searchable by all.
not rinsing will never work in a real work thread for the public, the author will be apologizing for wrecked setups every few pages. What I would love to see is a multipage guided sandbed procedure thread where nobody rinses, ever, for any type of sandbed job,
we investigated the extreme side of de silting
someone now should investigate the side of having all entrants for help in upgrades, moves and tank transfers not rinse one time ever and regain all original silt plus all accumulated sandbed organics, a no rinsing work thread.
By page twenty, madness heh
work threads are excellent procedural best practice filters, if our advice wrecks someone’s tank it’s a painful public accounting. pre rinsing all substrate is the strongest demo’d method in reefing, it’s logged results are excellent and searchable by all.
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They already did sand bed pulling and deemed it harmful based on their one off results.
they didn’t do light ramping
it wasn’t the sand removal that was the issue
also, we never remove sand while the tank is full
it’s disassembly cleaning that makes fifty page work threads
they didn’t do light ramping
it wasn’t the sand removal that was the issue
also, we never remove sand while the tank is full
it’s disassembly cleaning that makes fifty page work threads
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