Natures Ocean Aragonite?

sebaehope

Member
Just wondering if anyone has ever used Natures Ocean Bio-Activ Live Aragonite? I figured I would get some feedback on it before I go that route.
 

mr . salty

Active Member
Used it,and love it. I replaced all the CC in my 130 about a month ago.Did 40lbs in one day with NO CYCLE. I have added three more bags since then.Definatly some GOOD STUFF.
 

sebaehope

Member
Good to hear. I found a store, about an hour from me that sells it for a 32.00 a bag. Its the only store around that I even seen it at.I am gonna have to guess that its a good price, as its the only one I got. LOL Thanks.
 

mr . salty

Active Member
They get 35bucks a bag here. My lfs is the only one in SW michigan that carries the stuff.BLUEGILL,(another member here) came all the way down here to get some last week.
 

kappadoku

Member
Ive used it 3 times now and only have good things to say about it. All 3 of my tanks are setup using a courser aragonite with 30% or so or this smaller natures ocean stuff. I think it may have decreased my ph, as every tank Ive set up with it had ph problems in the first couple of weeks. One nano-reef got down around 7.85-7.9, but alkilinity was fine so it buffered back up in a matter of days. Moral of the story, if you use it, watch you ph.
 
V

volk23

Guest
Originally posted by MR . SALTY:
<STRONG>Used it,and love it. I replaced all the CC in my 130 about a month ago.Did 40lbs in one day with NO CYCLE. I have added three more bags since then.Definatly some GOOD STUFF.</STRONG>
Dont you think its cheaper to get the playsand from HomeDepot and few # of LS to start it up?
 

heithingi

Member
MR. SALTY,
The Coral Reef down in Grand Rapids is starting to sell it too, although he prefers to sell his own live sand.
I ordered some from online for my 120, and love it! In my 29, I used half of it and half of my LFS ls, and thought it did well, too. Will use it again, no doubt!
Lynda
 

jimi

Active Member
Why not just use southdown sand for$ 3.84 a bag with one live bag if you want.
 

lewolf

New Member
Couple things:
1)You can find the stuff for $19.99 on-line. Email me if you want to know where.
2) If you're setting up a new tank, I'd do as the others have suggested and find the Southdown sand at Home Depot. The bacteria you need will show up in your live rock.
If you're changing out a bed in an existing tank then the nature's ocean is a wise buy. The bacteria in NO will keep any ammonia spike to a minimum.
3)If you're planning a DSB or any other filtration method that includes 'real' live sand (ie worms and other critters) the nature's ocean sand is not an ideal particle size distribution. Rob Toonen has written extensively on the subject. (Again I can refer you to the articles if you want to e-mail me.)
I used NO in my tank and I've been having trouble getting my sand fauna population to take off.
HTH,
lew
 

bobber

Member
That is kinda the idea! To buy 10% of the amount of sand needed live. The rest can be southdown, or whatever(Aragamax oolite) Price is the only difference. But as for the product you mention, it is awesome and works very well. HTH--Bob
 

ironreef

Member
The live is just bacteria but its not what I call truly live with worms,snails ect.. for a nice sandbed fine grain or any smaler grains will do. The animals don't care. there are cheaper options like southdown ,esv but as for live sand its not very good but you still can use it if you like the grain size and wanna spend the extra$$
[ May 01, 2001: Message edited by: Ironreef ]
 

salth2o

Member
Absolutley love the stuff! I used it for my 150. I put 120lbs of cheaper 'oceans bottom aragonite' then placed 3 bags of the Natures Ocean Bio-Activ Live Aragonite over the top.
Worked great and 'looks' great.
Thumbs up :D
 
Top