Carib Sea Arag-ALive Fiji Pink Substrate?!

brandon429 · Dec 22, 2015

You can use either, I could rinse my entire sandbed in tap water right now, the whole thing, then post rinse with saltwater, set it all back up and not have a cycle. There will be full bacteria on the grains, after the rinse

Charles, I made a test thread to evaluate the claim, consider posting your take among a thread of supporters

http://reef2reef.com/threads/the-of...ead-aka-one-against-many.230281/#post-2681445

Something tells me by page 12 the groupthink will shift to a new causative other than Fiji pink although that seems impossible on this page.

NanaReefer · Dec 22, 2015

Congaken said:
I'm wondering if some of yu more experienced reefers agree with my shrimp theory?

IMO your shrimp has very little to do with your clean sand bed. Pistol Shrimps seldom wander far from their burrows. Mainly due to poor eye sight.
I believe time played a bigger part in your case.

brandon4432 · Dec 22, 2015

charleslotz said:
Perplexed...... at rinsing live sand ,... How mush rodi would you use for say .... 80 lb... Mmmmm ... Or do you use tap water ?

Confused,...makes little sense to wash away the bacteria etc etc ....

Since I was in no way rushed to get the tank up I chose to rinse in order to remove the silt

NanaReefer · Dec 22, 2015

Rinsing Live Sand makes no sense. Why bother buying it in the first place? All you're doing by rinsing it is flushing the extra money spent on it down the drain.

I used LS on my first & second setups. Never had any negative issues. 3rd time was the charm I guess-lol.

brandon429 · Dec 22, 2015

not rinsing before and during= the issue

http://reef2reef.com/threads/sandbed-issues.227239/

your tank, replicated

Yet he sounds receptive-not offended

not a brand name issue, a care issue.

brandon4432 · Dec 22, 2015

NanaReefer said:
Rinsing Live Sand makes no sense. Why bother buying it in the first place? All you're doing by rinsing it is flushing the extra money spent on it down the drain.

I used LS on my first & second setups. Never had any negative issues. 3rd time was the charm I guess-lol.

Agreed although I bought the sand live in intention to not rinse and then decided to just to start clean. Most likely a mistake on my end

Viner87 · Dec 22, 2015

Got exactly the same issues, however I'm starting to reduce it now since adding the following to my TMC 900:

6 saris snails (these munch the top and dig through the sand)
1 large conch snail
1 peacock wrasse
1 yellow belly wrasse (the wrasses dig in the sand and mix it up)

I've also got 6 turbo snails and 6 hermit crabs - yep lots of CUC for a small tank, but seems to be working a trick!

Congaken · Dec 22, 2015

NanaReefer said:
IMO your shrimp has very little to do with your clean sand bed. Pistol Shrimps seldom wander far from their burrows. Mainly due to poor eye sight.
I believe time played a bigger part in your case.

I thought it probably was a coincidence ...thanks...

charleslotz · Dec 22, 2015

B4432.... Not a mistake , better to be safe than sorry , I would have cleaned it to ...... A mistake is taking out your sand and washing it with tap water then ringing it with salt water and putting it back.... = reefkeeping Russian roulette.

NanaReefer · Dec 22, 2015

What does everyone think that "lighting" might be the culprit? I haven't tried the 3 day lights out method yet. Fearful of damaging my SPS mainly.

007Bond · Dec 22, 2015

Just finished your whole thread,...seems the only difference you noticed, was after lights were off,...then it returned fast with lights on. To me you sound like an experienced enough reefer,...you seemed to checked and rechecked the obvious. I went through the same and finely found my issue was lighting itself,...my AI T5's were shot. I don't recall seeing what lighting you are using and frankly would be surprised if you haven't checked already, but in case you didn't,...my 2 cents

NanaReefer · Dec 22, 2015

I'm running 180w LED's. Blues currently running @65% max ramping from 9am off at 7pm, whites @10% max ramping from 12pm off at 5pm. These lights have been on the tank since setup. This issues has been plaguing since first setup.

007Bond · Dec 22, 2015

I would play with the duration time some,...far easier that pulling all your sand

. What brand of leds?...even leds can age,...cut the blue % back some,...my guess your lighting is doing something. You might be able to cut back duration time and then slowly bring it back up?? I have t5 ati bulbs the set up is b+ c+ b+ so mine is fairly blue also, but my bulbs should have been changed long ago.
I also follow a thread on RC by TMZ...can't explain in his verbiage,... but he says sometime PO4 is taken up by algae before you test...so your tests show 0,...you might want to try gfo, lc or similar even though you have 0 test and see if that helps.
One other thought,...contact Adam at BC,..his input might be helpful.
Good luck,---Rick

NanaReefer · Dec 23, 2015

I run SeaGel in a reactor for po4 control. Chaeto for help with nitrates. Have always tested very low on both.
Lights are RR LumenTek.
Don't know the initials BC sorry.

007Bond · Dec 23, 2015

Battle Corals...Adam is a sponsor here on R2R

brandon4432 · Dec 23, 2015

NanaReefer said:
What does everyone think that "lighting" might be the culprit? I haven't tried the 3 day lights out method yet. Fearful of damaging my SPS mainly.

I did a three day blackout, all the discoloration was gone when the lights started ramping up. About a few hours later it was all back.

Jbryan243 · Dec 23, 2015

This will stir it up a little. I had the same substrate and the same issues, I even remove it all and went BB 3 years ago. I have two tanks, one is a 90 "SPS" dominated and the other is a deep blue 80 and very mixed with a 17" carpet anemone. Long story short is you've really answered your on question, it gets worst after your bi-weekly water change then starts to clear up? As I said, I fought it too but noticed that my 80 tank cleared up and my 90 stayed the same. Why, other than inhabitants everything is pretty much the same? Nitrates in the 80 measure around 10ppm and the 90 zero, bingo. I didn't want to go against the reef tank Gods so I didn't give up my weekly W/C but I feed much heavier and sure enough diatoms are vanishing from my 90, yeah! BTW, I have no idea what my phosphate numbers are and don't care anymore.

007Bond · Dec 23, 2015

I was following a thread that stated elevated NO3 would lower PO4 and the new train of thought seems that 0 NO3 and 0 PO4 are no longer the best for sps corals. I have followed postings from both Scott(UniqueCorals) and Adam(BattleCorals) that both say they run their systems so called dirty,...for whatever that is worth.

Jbryan243 · Dec 23, 2015

Exactly. I've (we all have) chased the numbers for 7 years and until I gave that up I only had hit and miss success with corals. Now it's constant fragging and what to do with em. Oh and to your point, I have a purple monti cap in both systems and always wondered why the cap in the 80 was such a dark gorgeous purple, I know why now. And yep the one in the 90 is growing much faster and is much darker or healthier.