Live Sand Question

[Maho.B]

Hello all. Have any of you purchased live sand from a company named Aqua Biomics? They have options of sand from the Gulf and the keys. I'm mostly interested in the sand from the keys as it's more of the traditional reef white sand compared to the Gulf sand. Wondering if anyone has experience with this sand and company. Thanks.

 

[TX_REEF]

I used them for a tank biome test, but not for sand. I'm sure it would be good quality. I would also recommend you check out Tampa Bay Saltwater for high quality live rock and sand: https://tbsaltwater.com/collections/treasure-chests

 

[Maho.B]

Thanks for the reply, I have heard great things about Tampa Bay live rock, but if possible I'm looking for Sam. That's more of the classic white reef look, the stuff from the Tampa Bay area is much more Brown with coarse shells, not that it's bad whatsoever. It's just a different look for me. I'm curious how did the biome test turn out what does it arm you with in terms of information? Did you make changes based off the results?

 

[Liquid361]

Hello all. Have any of you purchased live sand from a company named Aqua Biomics? They have options of sand from the Gulf and the keys. I'm mostly interested in the sand from the keys as it's more of the traditional reef white sand compared to the Gulf sand. Wondering if anyone has experience with this sand and company. Thanks.

They only sell small samples to seed a sand bed, not sand meant to be the base of a reef tank. You have to buy your sand elsewhere and then add theirs to it. Just FYI.

 

[brandon429]

I recommend to skip it. What you’ve paying for with them is the assurance the sample doesn’t contain X pathogen, see their list.

But think about it: are you going to fallow every wet thing you’ll ever add to this tank? No

So that makes the initial guarantee of sectional sandbed safety worth how much in reality when you’ll just be pumping vectors in left and right for the next ten years.

Let’s say you built an entire reef using fallow technique to exclude all fish malady, and all preventative medicine was applied to any fish held in exceptional quarantine applied to a pro level. A truly blockaded planned reef. If you were lacking a small degree of sand to replace some you forgot to add, then you could buy some for $ that was scanned and evaluated to be disease free. Our habits in reefing are to instantly erase any benefits of fallowed material unless you are a rare one. They’re rarely helpful. At no point will I need to pay AB for a bacteria scan in order to grow any coral I want. This is a huge fad.

You can prevent coral disease by reefing cleanly you don’t have to buy their material for an inside edge on growth, not at all.

 

[areefer01]

Thanks for the reply, I have heard great things about Tampa Bay live rock, but if possible I'm looking for Sam. That's more of the classic white reef look, the stuff from the Tampa Bay area is much more Brown with coarse shells, not that it's bad whatsoever. It's just a different look for me. I'm curious how did the biome test turn out what does it arm you with in terms of information? Did you make changes based off the results?

As noted above TBS sells live sand. They also sell rubble.

The main difference between Aquabiomics and TBS is that Aquabiomics will do a eDNA test to show it is pest / pathogen free. TBS leases acres of oceanic space and aquacultures rock. They also have sand.

Both are fine. TBS gets you more live critters in my opinion and is just as healthy. They do random eDNA tests and have been pest / pathogen free.

 

[brandon429]

Where AB is helpful: to see a neat scan of the types of bacteria in the tank, for the section swabbed. It is interesting to see the last and how the % breaks down. How much is that snapshot worth to see? = the price of the service. The market will bear that much value in the sampling.

 

[fish_collector]

QTing your fish to screen out parasites, sure.
Dipping and QTing corals for a while to screen out AEFW and such, sure.
Cutting bases off of frags before introduction, sure.
Having to do DNA testing to determine what grows in the sand? Your kidding me right?

I can remember a time when sex was safe and skateboarding was dangerous...

 

[areefer01]

Having to do DNA testing to determine what grows in the sand? Your kidding me right?

There is no having to. It is optional. Aquabiomics does eDNA and microbiom testing as a service. Because they do this it is a no brainer for them to have oceanic sand brought in, tested, and resell. The test results show that there are no pathogens or diseases. Buying directly through them, no supply chain nastiness, the hobbyist knows it is clean.

Up to you if the juice is worth the squeeze.

 

[Maho.B]

Really enjoying the different perspectives regarding the different sands and quarantining practices. Admittedly I was only interested in their product because of its grain size and it's white color, I'm definitely not worried about getting pathogens or anything like that, I agree on some of the comments above that we are putting all types of different items into our reef systems. I've been trying to get rid of the ampho dinos that live in my sand bed and make it brown during peak hours, I've been doing what others have prescribed and I also thought removing some of the sand and replacing it with actual real live sand (from the ocean not bah) would help the fight. My current sand bed is white aragonite. Thanks again, love all the perspectives given.

 

[fish_collector]

Yeah I understand what the aquabiomics service is, and I question if it is of any benefit to anyone. Our reef tanks have all kinds of things in them, some good some bad, I've never had an issue I couldn't solve. The dry rock thing that we use today does have it's challenges for sure. Micromanaging the biome is not an easy thing to do and really out of the scope of 99% of reefers, in both knowledge and desire. With all due respect, marketing a product like real ocean sand that has had it's biome scrutinized sounds good to someone who wouldn't know any better, but for someone who may have a lot of experience with marine aquarium husbandry would likely see it as unnecessary. If they sent me some I'd use it and provide a field report in 6 months.

In my 1 year old frag tank I have been dealing with dinos now and then. I haven't ID'd them, I know they're dinos, when they get thick enough that I can't stand it I siphon them into a 1 (one) micron filter sock and return the water to the tank. It definitely works to reduce their numbers. Presently there are none but like everything, knock on wood.

And FWIW, I've enjoyed this thread and I'm glad I could share some of my BS with everyone ;)

 

[fish_collector]

Years ago, probably 20 years ago, a nonprofit called GARF (Geothermal Aquatic Research Foundation) marketed a product called "GARF Grunge", it was nothing more than the debris, rubble and detritus salvaged from the bottom of Figi live rock holding tanks. It was reletively cheap, it was sand, shell fragments, rock rubble and some muck but the gosh darned stuff was literally everything that came off of fresh live rock and was like rocket fuel for a reef tank. 20 years ago no one worried about what was in their sand, it was thought of as the more the merrier. Nowadays everyone is worried about what's in their reef and I find it bit amusing.

 

[TX_REEF]

Yeah I understand what the aquabiomics service is, and I question if it is of any benefit to anyone. Our reef tanks have all kinds of things in them, some good some bad, I've never had an issue I couldn't solve. The dry rock thing that we use today does have it's challenges for sure. Micromanaging the biome is not an easy thing to do and really out of the scope of 99% of reefers, in both knowledge and desire. With all due respect, marketing a product like real ocean sand that has had it's biome scrutinized sounds good to someone who wouldn't know any better, but for someone who may have a lot of experience with marine aquarium husbandry would likely see it as unnecessary. If they sent me some I'd use it and provide a field report in 6 months.

In my 1 year old frag tank I have been dealing with dinos now and then. I haven't ID'd them, I know they're dinos, when they get thick enough that I can't stand it I siphon them into a 1 (one) micron filter sock and return the water to the tank. It definitely works to reduce their numbers. Presently there are none but like everything, knock on wood.

And FWIW, I've enjoyed this thread and I'm glad I could share some of my BS with everyone ;)

For me, aquabiomics flagged a severe lack of bacterial biodiversity, which I attempted to rectify by adding mature live rock and real ocean live rock. My system has been more stable since, so I do believe it was helpful to some extent.