--= look at this... site claims not cycling needed =--

[J Crew]

just thought people should know that there are scamers out there. this guys claims that you don't have to go through the cycling process if you buy his special live sand. check it out:

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1291362146

peace

 

[Anemone]

Actually, the "Nature's Ocean" live sand works. I experimented with it and set up a nano (6 gal) tank with only this sand - no cycle. The sand contains bacteria only (ie, no 'pods, worms, mini-brittles, etc.), and I certainly wouldn't overload a tank right off the bat, but with a light bioload, I think you can have a cycle-less tank (I had no ammonia or nitrites for the first month - then I quit checking - lazy me

)

Kevin

 

[Green Mariner]

http://www.reefcentral.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=71644d61c1e52fe42cb0fbc3d3033463&threadid=44250

 

[Anonymous]

Well I'm not really interested in looking at this guys site, but I can tell you that it's plenty easy to set up a tank with no cycle. I just did it last week. I set up a 7 gallon nano with live sand from my main tank. There's a pair of harlequin shrimp, an argi angel, 2 emerald crabs and a pair of cleaner shrimp. Everyone is habby.
So, if this guy is selling high quality sand, and if you keep the load light at first as the above post suggests - it IS possible. I wouldn't just throw sand I purchased in a tank and plop my prized maxima clam in though. Caution is the word of the day here.
Jim

 

[newreefman1]

I have used this live sand primarily cause it was cheap at the time at petco and my LFS gave me some when I got my tank there. I reallly liked the grain size. I think the mix is the pink samoan sand they advertise on their site. I love the stuff. This time around im not using it cause its quite pricy. I think if you use it to instantly cycle a tank, its hogwash. May speed it up by a few days but no instant cycle BS. I used it cause I liked the color,size and price at the time

But...I also have lost 0 fish to my cycling and I used it when moving a tank and had no issues as well.
J

 

[Green Mariner]

My first post was not a link to their site, it is a post on RC about the service people have recieved from this place.

 

[Anemone]

Yeah, we have two different issues here. ReefDevil as an online source (evidently not good), and the "Nature's Ocean" sand. Nature's Ocean is not made by this ReefDevil outfit. It is also not your average, taken from someone else's tank, live sand. It's a sealed bag of wet sand, innoculated with bacteria, that says it has a shelf life of something like 9 months.

I'm not advocating its use, just trying to straighten out a couple of issues. I tried it because I didn't believe it would work (shelf life of 9 months? Give me a break!) - I could easily have taken 20 lbs of live sand from my other tanks and had a no-cycle nano. Instead, I tried the Nature's Ocean, and was pleasantly suprised.

Kevin

 

[2poor2reef]

I'd also like to defend the "Nature's Ocean" product which I got from my local pet warehouse kinda place. It is pricey but it definitely shortened my cycle and I think it is very useful in certain situations. For me, I had a small tank so the cost wasn't a large concern. I also wanted to carefully introduce the detrivores via a kit, as there were some critters in my existing live sand that I didn't want in my new tank. So the live bacteria without other fauna aspect worked for me.

Keep in mind that the bio load of a newly cycling tank is largely dependent on how much die-off you get from your live rock. If you added a ton of fresh, non-cured liverock, then you would need a huge amount of live sand to process the organics. OTOH, if you started with a relatively small amount of well-cured live rock then you might well get away without any detectable amonia spike. My opinion only.