SWF Live Sand

dreeves

Active Member
I purchased and received 25 pounds of LS from here...got the sand..rinsed it well in saltwater...put it in tanks, refuges etc...now the tanks are cycling.
This isn;t a good thing...
Reckon this will be a short cycle?
 

scotts

Active Member
Do you still have the rinse water? I expect that you don't. But if you do you should put that water in the tank. That water will have all of the good bugs that you want.
Scott
 

dreeves

Active Member
I rinsed it because i didnt want any of the chunks of seaweed and other floating debris in my tanks...
 

dreeves

Active Member
Thomas, foulbrew and Kipass...you 3 were extremely helpful in your replies...I appreciate the time you took to type on your keyboards the questions and votes that you provided...it was most helpfull...may I make a recommendation in the future...certainly I may...it is my post...stay focused guys...pay attention to the question...If you re-examine my original post...you will notice there is no reference to should I have rinsed the sand or not...or am I supposed to rinse the sand or not...it was a pretty straight forward question...will it be a short cycle?
The answer I was sorta looking for was something similar to...but not exactly like (leaving it open for the focusing challenged here)...it should only be a short cycle...or it may be a lengthy cycle...or the cycle will be done when the readings are back to normal for your tank...and then possibly a why did you rinse it type of responsive question....
Scotts...no I didnt keep the water...it smelled like uncured live rock as the entire bag of sand did...
 

dreeves

Active Member
See there ya go Kipass...now that was helpful...
I am thinking the same thing...I have never purchased a large quantity of LS before...and the small amount I did purchase locally didnt have the uncured LR blues...So the smell caught me by surprise. So I dumped it into a 5 gallon bucket..covered the sand with about 3-4 inches of water and stirred it with my hand...I then drained the water as best I could without losing any sand and distro'd it to the tanks and refuge's.
Lesson learned...
 

dreeves

Active Member
Aren't I just a wise a$$ today...
Maybe I should go to bed...been up working all night..
No harm intended guys...you all have provided eons of information here.
Thanks again.
 

the claw

Active Member
Gee, I thought I answered your question. Lets see, maybe I can be more wordy. Since you rinsed your sand, which was not so bright, and you dumped it into your tank, you are going to wxpect to have a short cycle. If it crashes your tank, which may happen you will have a long cycle.
Is that more informative?
 

dreeves

Active Member
Thanks guys for your patience with my behavior...
In any case...I researched here prior to placing my order for the sand, particularly the acclimation area of SWF site...found nothing on the sand...so I researched elsewhere...a very prominant site...that is what they stated to do...in any case...the final decision to rinse the sand wasn't made until I opened the bag...uncured LR smelled better...so I rinsed it in the manner I mentioned above, as I didn't want any die-off in my tanks..nor any of the floaties which were present as well...
So now I wait and see what happens...so far everything seems to be doing ok...including the peppermint shrimps in the FO tank...hopefully it will be quick..the reef only got a couple of pounds, I think about 1/2 inch to the top layer of about 4.5 inches previous...the FO got the majority on top of a 3 or so week old 5-6 inch DSB. And even with that..it amounted to about a 1/2 to 1 inch layer on top...the three fuges only got about an eight ounce cup full each...
Thankfully I did this before fully stocking everything...reef has been establishing for about a year now and I have only had the gonads to put a ricordia and the yellow polyps in along with the redspotted hawk and crabs...all the critters (pods and starfish) in the fuges are all doing ok so far as well.
Claw...try typing slower...as I read slow...
Kipass...pot calling the kettle black...you hit that one on the nail head...
Later guys
 

melissa v.

Member
Yes i did, it sounded like children in here, and when i looked it was adults acting like children.:rolleyes: MEN!!!!!!!!!!!
Melissa V.
 
T

thomas712

Guest
Lady Melissa - Don't I get any credit for staying out of it :confused:
Sigh, no respect again.
Dreeves, originally I really was curious about why you did rinse the sand, but hey your right I missed the whole point. I am however saving a small dagger just for you. There are three letters in it, 2 are the same, the second letter of the alphabet, the other letter is the 15th letter of the alphabet, take it with a smile my friend :D
Thomas
 

melissa v.

Member

Originally posted by Thomas712
Lady Melissa - Don't I get any credit for staying out of it :confused:
Sigh, no respect again
Thomas

i tried to give you the benifit of the doubt, so i went back and reread the posts thinking that i had judged you to harsh, but it seems to me that you just antigionized the situation;)
but that's o.k. because it looks like you boy's played fair in the end:D
Melissa V.
 

dreeves

Active Member
After more research online...particularly to the *Delete*...I believe the LS would have caused the cycling regardless if I rinsed the sand or not. I base this on two major distributors of LS sites recommendations, WS even suggest the LS needs to be cured similar to LR...and the foul odor from the bag when it was opened.
What I think happened was this...
The sand was either shipped semi-dead or in severe state of die-off...and/or the sand spent some long hours in extreme heat during shipping...both of which would create a need for curing.
In any case...SWF should have some sort of info on the LS for people to review prior to ordering from them.
Regardless of where I obtain any LS from in the future...I will cure it like I do LR prior to placement into the systems...lesson learned the hard way.
 
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