Nature's Ocean Reef Sand and Reef Substrate
20 lb Black Beach Reef Sand
3.3
5
4
4
Excellent
I broke down and set up a tank and used all new sand. The tank has live rock, fish, inverts, and coral. I used 60lbs of this sand and there was no cycle it was instant. No spikes in water chemistry!
It can take up to 3 days for the water to clear as I have noticed in 3 other tanks. The use of water polishing pads by Flu Val really helped speed it along. These can be added to any filter.
February 8, 2011
Can't beat the instant Aquarium!
I used this sand when setting up a 240 gallon aquarium. The tank settled within one day and I had fish in the tank the day after (2 days). The tank cycled itself within a two week process and within 15 days of the first fish I had 15 fish in the tank with zero loss.
I would not recommend doing this at your house but, if your in business and need to setup an instant aquarium with fish. There is no better way to go.
January 23, 2011
Mixed feelings
This sand is extremely cloudy when added to the tank. When I say extremely, I'm not exaggeration. I went on vacation the day after adding the sand and returned 8 days later. The tank (20g long) water had cleared up pretty well (Aquaclear 70 running the whole time with carbon and sponge only). I ran a gravel vac on it and got the majority of the "murk" off the sand using the vac (ended up pulling about 2/3 of the tank volume out during the vac process). The sand isnt as black as what you see in the picture (or even when you look at it through the bag on the shelf) but it does contrast nice with the Fiji live rock we have. Granules are fairly large but look to be small enough for sifters still. There are many small shells and other debris (sticks etc) mixed in with the sand.
I cant comment on the "live" part of the sand as I didnt populate the tank until almost two weeks later and I wasnt here to run any tests even if something was added. If you use this sand, give it a good week to sit in the tank with nothing else so you can clean it easily.
Full tank image was taken 2 weeks after adding the sand.
July 11, 2011
Mild rinse ?
No mild rinse will clean this mess up, I filled a colander with bark, paper and wood scraps.. I am almost scared to even use it but what do I do, put it in buckets and send it back ?
This was the black reef sand BTW
February 9, 2011
 "Nature's Ocean Bio-Active Reef Sand and Reef Substrate")
