Oceans Direct Sand sat for 90 days, is it still good to use?

[Craigh]

Bought a bag of Original Grade Ocean Direct Live Reef Sand almost 3 months ago when I was told tank would be arriving, needless to say it didn’t arrive on time. Is this still good to use or should I throw it out? I couldn’t find any dates?

 

[snorklr]

probably just as ineffective as it was new

 

[jwilliams860]

Yes you can still use it.

They say the bacteria inside is triggered by the addition of oxygen to the bag. Either way it wont have a negative affect. Think how long that stuff sits in a warehouse or truck on the way to somewhere and then on a shelf before someone buys it.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

you don't throw it out... you rinse it and use it.

 

[rja]

IMO, all "live sand" (some exceptions) is just an ammonia bomb. Who knows how long it was bagged before you bought it? There cannot be viable bacteria in these bags. Without gas exchange, there is probably fermentation or something occurring. I would never use anything but dry sand, honestly. Not worth the hassle, just spend another 20-40$ on a bag of dry sand.

 

[jda]

Just smell it. If it smells fine, then it is fine. It is not likely that there was ever any super awesome bacteria colony in that anyway. If there was, then it will likely smell like rotten eggs now.

Use it. Rinse it and use it. Either way, it is fine to use.

 

[taricha]

Actually, I'm getting good results with bagged "live sand". Three different bagged sand products (including this one) are all eating ammonia & nitrite as well or better for me than most bottled nitrifier products.
Wasn't what I expected.

 

[Miami Reef]

Actually, I'm getting good results with bagged "live sand". Three different bagged sand products (including this one) are all eating ammonia & nitrite as well or better for me than most bottled nitrifier products.
Wasn't what I expected.

Did you rinse it prior?

I recently bought 2 small bags of ocean direct. One bag was placed directly in my 10 gallon test tank without rinsing. It caused organic film and junk on the surface. It was like scum.

After a few days, I rinsed the second bag in a bucket, and it prevented that organic matter.

The bag said it contained a few strains of bacteria on it. I filled a tall glass (about 6” inches tall of this sand (the pre-rinsed and un-rinsed sand in my tank sump for denitrification.

 

[taricha]

Did you rinse it prior?

I recently bought 2 small bags of ocean direct. One bag was placed directly in my 10 gallon test tank without rinsing. It caused organic film and junk on the surface. It was like scum.

Yep. I poured saltwater over the sand, give it a gentle swirl, and then pour the cloudy water out.
Apparently plenty of the cycling bacteria stay with the sand.

 

[cdnco2004]

It has a 1 year shelf life.

 

[Shon]

This thread reminded me that I have one stashed away. Will follow this advice myself.

Looking at the bag and can't find the best by date on mine either. I guess it faded into oblivion. Email search led to a receipt of 10/15/2017. Part of the inside bag and some sand is stained a bit green.

Not that this information is pertinent to the discussion but.. My seachem grey coast bag (purchased 01/10/2022) broke a hole in the bottom corner and leaked a bit when I lifted it.. seachem bag quality is bad. Ocean direct handle only stretched a bit.

Edit to add image:

Of course the sand inside shifted moving it, but you can see some green stain on the bottom. It's on the bag itself.

 

[Miami Reef]

This thread reminded me that I have one stashed away. Will follow this advice myself.

Looking at the bag and can't find the best by date on mine either. I guess it faded into oblivion. Email search led to a receipt of 10/15/2017. Part of the inside bag and some sand is stained a bit green.

Not that this information is pertinent to the discussion but.. My seachem grey coast bag (purchased 01/10/2022) broke a hole in the bottom corner and leaked a bit when I lifted it.. seachem bag quality is bad. Ocean direct handle only stretched a bit.

Edit to add image:

Of course the sand inside shifted moving it, but you can see some green stain on the bottom. It's on the bag itself.

I also saw a green stain on mine.

 

[brandon429]

note to all: we don't need sandbed bacteria in any display reef that's ever been posted to this site. since we all use live rocks, or cycle up a set of dry rocks to live, that's the only required bacteria

nobody needed canister filters though they use them routinely packed in surface area
nobody ever needed trickle filters in a display reef packed in bioballs in the 90s
nobody needs remote deep sandbed bacteria + surface area, because live rock is enough surface area for all displays
and nobody needs sandbed bacteria (which is why in the sand rinse thread, instantly making a reef tank bare bottom doesn't harm ammonia control)

if this sand above was dried, boiled, sterilized with bleach, dried again, and rinsed totally clean before added the ammonia control in the display will work the exact same way connected to a seneye nh3 meter that adding the most carefully cycled sand would impart

what happens to sandbed bacteria in a bag simply does not matter.

 

[brandon429]

how to know if you've pre rinsed correctly

once you're done with the cursory rinse, take a handful of sand and drop it into a clear glass of tap water. if it clouds, which it will, keep rinsing. you don't have to use saltwater due to what's stated above: preserving it's bacteria not required, not beneficial, not positive, not harmful, it's just neutral. you're in it for the grains, the looks, something for pistol shrimp to dig in and for wrasses to dive into without stirring up major clouding; it's bacteria are a moot point. this means you don't have to waste saltwater in prepping that sand.

you don't want a cloudy display, so wait until your rinsed collection lump passes a drop test before using it in the display.

 

[taricha]

Looking at the bag and can't find the best by date on mine either. I guess it faded into oblivion.

These bags have no best date - they just claim it'll work whenever you get them apparently.

Part of the inside bag and some sand is stained a bit green.

I also saw a green stain on mine.

The green I've seen on these was in the part of the bag that got the most light while sitting on the shelves. I'm guessing it's a form of cyanobacteria - the stuff is literally everywhere.

 

[jda]

I need sandbed bacteria to convert my no3 into N gas. It is part of my method. ...so you can say nobody minus one.

 

[brandon429]

those bacteria don't come in the bag, they're seeded by your system if you can get them to take hold. but agreed if someone can harness that conversion it's handy. that final benefit was the touted guarantee of 100% of all deep sandbeds from the 90s deep into the 2000's when people mainly started to see they were nitrate factories vs reducers. agreed a select few might be able to get that benefit. I find it fantastically non transmissible though: you can instruct someone across the way here to set up your exact arrangement and theirs will produce nitrate vs consume it. denitrification is the ultimate unicorn in reefing in my opinion

 

[jda]

You don't know that. Anaerobic bacteria are probably are growing in there once all of the o2 is gone. In any case, somebody overgeneralized and said "sandbed bacteria" and I need sandbed bacteria. Nobody took the time, care or effort to say which kinds or offer any kind of a nuance. There are too many different kinds of bacteria to lump them all together.

 

[Rmckoy]

I need sandbed bacteria to convert my no3 into N gas. It is part of my method. ...so you can say nobody minus one.

I’ve always been led to believe the Smallwood sand beds we keep does not achieve the same results for transforming nitrates to nitrogen gas
And only possible with a matured dsb

 

[jda]

You are going to need about three inches, or so. It takes a while, like up to a year and you pretty much have to leave it alone. It can happen with less and especially in the areas under/near rocks, etc. Dr. Ron was a 6" guy, but there is no need for that.

I started with an even 3 inches. Now I have places with 2 inches and some with 4 - thank you tiger tail cucumbers. The new hannah can read about .1 no3, but it took ICP before this.

You see it all of the time on here with tanks in the 6-12 month mark with posts asking about dosing nitrate. They had nitrate from the jump which was "feeding" their corals and then it started to drop and now is below one and barely detectable. This is because the anoxic areas of the sandbed matured and now the nitrates dropped. We get a few of these threads, dare I say work threads, in the chemistry forum each week. There are even some that follow up saying that they have to add more and more sodium nitrate to get a detectable level - this is them growing the anoxic bacteria with their nitrate additions.

The crazy thing is that EVERYBODY could do this who set up tanks in the past. I mean everybody had near-zero no3 - clear on a test kit. The issue is that nearly none of them understood that the sand would bind po4 and eventually it would stop and their bad husbandry would cause the po4 to rise and rise and rise after a few years they would have 1.0-3.0 of po4. Sand beds got labeled time bombs but were just hiding poor reef keeping and could not do it any longer. It is easy to run a fuge, skim, replace some sand, etc. so that they sand never filled up with po4. My sand is from about 1998, or so. I do have to add some new sand from time to time because it does dissolve.

The stuff that Dr. Ron wrote about still works today. Just sub in 3 inches for 6. Also a good idea to clean that sand every 4-5 years with a gravel vac - like 20-25% a quarter over a year - to get the inert gunk out of it and allow the water to flow move through the oxic and anoxic areas again.