Live Sand & Your Reef Tank...What You NEED to Know!

[@thereefstop8916]

Hawaiian Black for me 👍 Find it makes my fish and coral colours POP Luckily I've never had any problems, magnetic or otherwise :) The only drawback for me is all the little white bits it contains

[@nelsonsa1374]

The best channel ever Tks

[@fishpony1211]

Awesome👊

[@therevanchist1123]

I used Natures Ocean Samoa Pink, it looks good, it’s the closest I could find that was similar to the pink sand at Horseshoe Bay in Bermuda, except that has the consistency of baby powder.. probably wouldn’t be best in a tank 😅 I do want to try out a black sand in my next tank even with the risks

[@Reefbelontv]

Good vidéo 👍

[@jacksonsparrow8865]

Do we have to vacuum the sand bed? I believe i have Figi Pink sand. Or can i just do water changes ?

[@moviefan4life166]

What do you think of the Aqua Forrest Bio Sand? Thank you!

[@alexguitar841]

Thomas always gets a 👍

[@Brucelovesjulie]

Amen to that! I dunno what it is about him, but his presence and onscreen personality is immensely likable. :D

[@alexguitar841]

@@BrucelovesjulieI know right?!... He just seems like such an honest and good dude. Matthew seems like really cool people too. His video of him drilling a tank with just a power drill and a water hose is what finally gave me the courage to try it myself.

[@johnatella8498]

I am going from a 125 to a 180. I am wondering why can't I just use regular sand that I have cleaned and let set 48 hours. Also, do any of you put styrofoam under your sand in case your live rock falls over and hits the bottom of the aquarium. Seems it would add protection. Thoughts?

[@chrisriker8186]

Does Fiji Pink release ammonia in your experience? I set up a new tank cycling with Dr. Tims and the cycle has been completely stalled. I'm going almost 3 weeks now and ammonia/nitrite/nitrate aren't budging a bit. I only did a single dose of ammonia per the instructions on the bottle but I ended up with way more than 2 ppm ammonia and it stayed there for almost 2 weeks.

[@FoolOfATuque]

Substrate generally won’t bump your ammonia unless there’s organic matter in them. The bacteria that it shipped with is nitrifying bacteria and will not add ammonia. What source are you using for ammonia? 2 ppm may not be high enough concentration to trigger bacterial growth. Dr. Tim’s says to be worried when you get to 5 ppm. Are you testing for nitrites and nitrates?

[@FoolOfATuque]

You need to do about 2 weeks of ammonia dosing to get the cycle going. This is Dr. Tim’s recipe card for fishless cycling: www.drtimsaquatics.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/FishlessCycling_prescription_recipe.pdf

[@chrisriker8186]

​@@FoolOfATuque Dr. Tim's instructions say that live sand will add ammonia. I missed that part and dosed to 2 ppm, so it has been over 2 ppm the whole time until about 2 weeks into the process. My nitrites are not measurable by my test kit, over 2ppm. Nitrates were over the range of my hanna checker. I did a 50% water change and brought them down to roughly 38 ppm and they are up to 42 ppm or so now. Ammonia has been sitting at 0.2 ppm for about a week now and hasn't moved.

[@FoolOfATuque]

@@chrisriker8186 sounds like you know what you’re doing then. Good luck

[@chrisriker8186]

@@FoolOfATuque well I feel like I don’t because it’s not moving haha

[@thaitran815]

How is the AF bio sand compared to special grade?

[@Botzz28]

Man I can’t get rid of these dam diatoms on my sandbed 😩.. I tried everything. Vacuuming phosband waterchanges UV.. i can’t figure it out !

[@BRStv]

If it's a newer system, you might just have to wait it out. If it's a more established system, you will want to confirm that you're in fact dealing with diatoms and not dinoflagellates.

[@jobalvaro3440]

kindly for your comment please.. how to transfer cycled sand from old saltwater tank to a new one without losing beneficial bacteria and at the same time leaving dirts from old tank.. please share an efficient method.. thank you very much..

[@steelcowboy2751]

Hands down, no debate is the ocean direct sand due to diversity of bacteria. Also, sand is where the majority of bacteria live and multiply, live rock isn’t really enough on its own over time

[@drewlong77]

THOMAS!!... I see that your bag of CaribSea Special Grade says EXPIRED Dec 2018! SO COOL! I didnt know that you shopped at the same LFS as me!!

[@BRStv]

😆 old stock photo

[@jasonblevins8280]

Great video......... Turn down that music!! lol It should be slightly lower than the commentary.

[@carlosbarajas382]

I’m starting a 30 gallon saltwater tank first salt water

[@Brucelovesjulie]

I was just lurking old live streams, can someone share with me the results from this episodes experiments? "Are We Cycling All Wrong? What Is "Biome" in a Reef Tank? : This Week in Reefing" - kzbin.info/www/bejne/o4fNdX95nrN-a5Y

[@BRStv]

That series is currently scheduled to be released mid-July 😁

[@Brucelovesjulie]

@@BRStv yes!