Sand Bed Boost

[31-2c]

I am looking to boost the life in my DSB. This is an established tank with a few fish in it. I was looking at purchasing the Mix and Match Special from WWW.ipsf.com. My question is, how does one introduce all of these wonderfull creatures without the tank inhabitants taking advantage of a very expensive dinner. I posed this question to the people at IPSF and received a very rude reply. (Needless to say I will not be ordering from them!) I would enjoy any tips/suggestions from anyone that has done this in an established tank.

Thanks again

David

 

[SPC]

Feed the tank and then turn the lights off. After about an hour you can introduce. Note: if possible it would be best to introduce 1 hour after lights out at night.
Steve

 

[GMH320]

David,
I was just thinking about doing the same thing. Little by little there seems to less life in the sand bed and I would like to give it a boost. Then possibly cultivating in a refugium. Let me know how yop make out. Thanks.
Greg

 

[Mouse]

Post the reply you got from ISPF, i just wondered how a perfectly reasonable question like that could be answered rudely.

 

[sillingw]

cut the bottom off a one gallon milk container and then place container on sand add the detrivore kit thru the neck and then put the top back on. You could do this in several places in the tank if you wish. Feed the fish first and add the detrivore kit after the lights have gone off and leave the container for a couple of hours - this will allow the critters to get into the sand and also stop the current blasting them into the water column and giving the fish a delicious feed. By the way ipsf sand bed activator kit is awsome, even though I hear Gerald (the owner) can be a bit short at times, I have ordered several times from them and have always been happy with the quality and the service, inland aquatics is another source for a detrivore kit.

 

[Nameless]

Has anyone ever gotten the 'live' part of live sand from an actual ocean? I'm going to florida in a week, and I was wondering if it was legal/possible/beneficial to screen out the good stuff in the sand to bring home....

 

[swreefer]

This is not the first time a rude reply to a question came from IPSF. I emailed them a question a few months back asking if the macro pack would be enough to get to grow in my tank if snails, crabs, and fish sampled it. I wanted to get an estimate on how big it wasbefore I spent the money. Their reply was a one line response. "Buy it and find out". I thought that was kind of rude. No effort whatsoever.

 

[Emperator]

swreefer,

kinda sounds like when I was shopping for a new 100g tank and asked the worker at the lfs how thick the glass was on a particular tank I was interested in. He took one look at the tank and turned to me and said "thick enough" and walked away.

needless to say i do not go there anymore.

 

[31-2c]

I already erased the message, but this is pretty close to what it said.

Maybe if you would properly set up a reef rather than jump into trying to get it stocked, you wouldn't have had that problem. Of course your fish will eat them, maybe next time you will do your research.

I didn't think this was a proper response.

 

[SPC]

It sounds to me like he thought your e mail was saying that you had already done this and your fish had eaten them. But to be fare, we would have to see both e mails.
Steve

 

[Jan-Dman]

i had a dsb for over a year but now use a bare bottom as i found the sand bed to trap lots of detritus.

i'm also skimmerless!!!

 

[esmithiii]

Thanks for the relevent advice JanD-Man.

What all is in their sand activator kit?

E