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melev

Two days later, I saw life...

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by
melev
, 02-09-2011 at 03:12 PM (4242 Views)
The tank was set up with rock and sand for a week, then we drained it down to nothing, moved all the sand, installed a support system with acrylic rod (the entry will be posted in full detail very soon), refilled the tank, fixed the sand, added the rock, adding eight 10 lbs trays of Tropic Eden Live Sand and by Sunday night I had the livestock in the tank. From Sunday night to Tuesday night (two days), life appeared on the glass before my eyes. I was working the cleaning magnet across the front and noticed tiny white dots near the water line. Copepods! Then I looked carefully in the refugium, and found tiny non-motile jellyfishes on the front panel. To see these so early in the set up is great. I know there's plenty of debate whether packaged live sand has any value or not, but based on what I'm seeing I'm leaning in the direction of it being both useful and beneficial.

In my last tank, I added bagged live sand from time to time to re-infuse new life into the sandbed to keep the diversity up. I didn't have proof it worked, but felt it couldn't do any harm. The sand is clean and the microscopic life was replenished, if any was present in the product. I've purchased brine shrimp eggs in the past, sealed in a coffee can from Brine Shrimp Direct. A year later, I could still take a scoop of those dry eggs, add them to water and have life spring forth. Is it so hard to believe there could be life in the bags or trays of 'live sand' sold in fish stores and online? Not for me.

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Comments

  1. David W's Avatar
    Congradulations Marc
  2. Jessy's Avatar
    I should have done that ... stupid me trying to save $$. I think i'm going to buy a bag and put it in my fuge.
  3. Jnarowe's Avatar
    Nice info. Marc. I was always suspicious of the live bagged sand.
  4. jasonh's Avatar
    But Marc, weren't you also "sharing" a little water between the two systems for a couple days?
  5. melev's Avatar
    Yes, I was sharing water but these were not present in my other system. The copepods are everywhere, and are bone white. The little Jelliies are dotting the refugium zone. I'd not seen these in years. I've had the same rock all this time, and there is no doubt that some pods are present in my system, but for them to be up at the top of the tank and all over the viewing panels says something big to me.

    Frankly, I was a little concerned since we exposed my rockwork to air twice in 7 days. And there was a rock or two that really smelled bad, which is always a sign of cycling. Yet, the timing coincides strongly with the addition of 80lbs of live sand.

    That's the problem in this hobby, we often change multiple things at once during a set up or upgrade (or to fix a problem) and can't necessarily pin the results on any given thing. If you want to rule out the other possibilities, set up a small tank, add some dry sand, some flow, a heater, and pour in the livesand and see what appears. I've used up all my stuff setting up the tank so I'm not going to do it. I just did, on a 400g-level.
  6. jasonh's Avatar
    Good enough for me