No rinse here, just followed the directions. A bit cloudy overnight, crystal clear the next day or two...but had it blacked out so couldn't see it anyway.
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Nowadays there's so many refs with good test kits (seneye, mindstream, standouts) wanting to post measures to age old aquarium questions
Someone could do neat bac assessment on pre and post rinse sand.
Dose a system using sand from bag as sole surface area, demo that the sand arrives nitrifier live. No pre rinse. You could put sand in nylon, stack it in a canister filter, test out a ten gallon tank of sw at half a ppm. 2 ppm ammonia is an arbitrary number set by bottle bac sellers also factoring in today's massive ammonia kit variation on accuracy. It is not a required proof level.
If the original sand isn't truly bac live, then cycle it up and make it so, test, then do rinse test.
Making half a ppm disappear overnite using known and controlled surface area sand is exactly as valid, and decent scaling considering the rinse portion. Any bac that remain we'd like to see, or see proof they're gone/sterilized.
Then do another section same bag rinsed in tap until it runs clear.
Retest, but add another follow up test in four days. You're testing for stress rebound vs total sterility. Four days is faster than dry sand can pick up enough microbes to pass a light oxidation test so if it can do half a ppm within a few days after rinse, same benefits to the overall tank are conferred.
The way I look at it. You will add bacteria anyway and will make it live. So why not just rinse it. Now is the time to not have any regrets
I’m am going to use the Fiji as well. What cycle reducer are you planning on using? Dr Tims?Man, for every rinser in this thread, theres a non rinser! Its interesting how people can have such varying outcomes with their methods. I happen to be starting a new 180 gallon soon and wanted to see what the general consensus is for this topic, but there seems to be no definitive answer.
This comment speaks to me the most.
Before we had bottled bacteria cycle starter packs, we ALWAYS needed something to live to seed the tank (live rock, or in this case sand.) But now you can order a bottle to kick start you nitrogen cycle, so live sand becomes a little less important. For me, I plan on picking up either fiji pink or special grade Carib Sea and washing it completely. There seems to be little gained by leaving it un-rinsed, and its one more thing I know i won't have to worry about later.
I’m am going to use the Fiji as well. What cycle reducer are you planning on using? Dr Tims?
So if I can get some dry small aggregate to add to my tank it won’t spike the PH in the water or add anything bad? Of course with it highly rinsed!!I have a friendly challenge though, to help people keep their cash in wallet vs paying other people's sports cay payments
The sandbed bacteria don't matter in your cycle, your running reef, they don't matter. They're always in excess of what the live rock can do, and that's always enough.
if you buy bottle bac, its due to buying dry live rock, the sand doesn't matter
lastly, you can't rinse bac off sand grains like we prep this sand, so you are still getting live sand after the tap prep/