nanoty Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 I bought a 40lb bag of Caribsea Arag-live sand at my LFS. Yes I know its a rip but it's all they had. Anyways, while adding it to my tank I noticed pieces of wood coming out of the bag. When I was done there was like half a net full of wood chips floating around. I also noticed tons of small rocks and probably a dozen or so golfball or larger rocks and coral skeletons in there as well as a bunch of shells. When I used this sand in the past it was always very nice, pure sand but this kinda sucks and isn't the look I was hoping for. WTF is going on? Is this supposed to be in there. Link to comment
Kraylen Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 Don't they just scoop most of that stuff off the beach? Link to comment
nanoty Posted July 16, 2008 Author Share Posted July 16, 2008 Don't they just scoop most of that stuff off the beach? Looks like they did it at my beach. Link to comment
Kraylen Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 Hmm, leave it in there, live wood! Link to comment
3wordattribute Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 hahahaha!!! ROFL Live wood... haha. i have the same sand and found hermit crab shells in there. found about 20-30 empty shells. threw a few into my pico for my hermits. Link to comment
gulfsurfer101 Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 That's what they call live sand, huh. You probably could have found better stuff at the beach. I've used this stuff in my tanks before and noticed the small rock in there too. Looks like they just scooped it off some beach somewhere. Link to comment
Kraylen Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 That's what they call live sand, huh. You probably could have found better stuff at the beach. I've used this stuff in my tanks before and noticed the small rock in there too. Looks like they just scooped it off some beach somewhere. Um, I think thats the point. lmfao. Link to comment
nanoty Posted July 16, 2008 Author Share Posted July 16, 2008 Yeah that's the thing. I've used it before and got nothing but really nice sand. This time it's full of crap, I'm suprised there weren't beer cans and Clorox bottles that say "Hecho in Mexico". Link to comment
Kraylen Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 hahahaha, find a syringe at the bottom of your tank. Link to comment
glennr1978 Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 Yeah that's the thing. I've used it before and got nothing but really nice sand. This time it's full of crap, I'm suprised there weren't beer cans and Clorox bottles that say "Hecho in Mexico". lol. Link to comment
mmelnick Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 That's what I used and it was nothing but fine grains of white sand. Link to comment
Dj Orion Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 I just added a 40 pound bag of the non live sand to my 75g the other day and got those wood type things floating in my water as well. What type of sand did you purchase? The Bahama Oolite and the Figi Pink are the finer grades that they offer, in which case it would be easy to spot a large rock in the bag, altho I have never seen anything like that before from that company. Guess you just got lucky. Link to comment
nanoty Posted July 16, 2008 Author Share Posted July 16, 2008 I just added a 40 pound bag of the non live sand to my 75g the other day and got those wood type things floating in my water as well. What type of sand did you purchase? The Bahama Oolite and the Figi Pink are the finer grades that they offer, in which case it would be easy to spot a large rock in the bag, altho I have never seen anything like that before from that company. Guess you just got lucky. I couldn't find a tag that said which sand it was but through the bag it looked very fine and just what I wanted. Now the tank is full of marble sized chunks of rock. I just sent an email to Caribsea to inquire. Link to comment
glennr1978 Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 I'm sure it will work out fine, just pick out the bigger pieces once all of the dust settles. Then throw them in your sump and you're on your way to a LR rubble filled 'fuge. Link to comment
marinekeeper Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 I always had great luck with the Estes brand sand. It's not live, but in a short time w/ live rock, it will be. Link to comment
reefone Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 the last time i used that sand it had the same crap floating on the surface after i added it. Link to comment
Dj Orion Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 I always had great luck with the Estes brand sand. It's not live, but in a short time w/ live rock, it will be. yeah but you dont get a PH buff from the estes sand that crushed aragonite gives you. Thats one of the nicer things about using the dead organic rock sand, vs the non organic sand. Naturally if you have enough rock tho, using estes sand shouldnt be a problem for your PH being buffed. Link to comment
yeast Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 When your calcium levels are very high, aragonite can aggregate. Maybe that is where the stones come from. But the wood...??? Link to comment
srikamaraja Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 If there is little to no cycle, then you have some free live rock, no? If the product is effective, I would overlook collection practices which are probably difficult as hell to regulate. Link to comment
gulfsurfer101 Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 Yeah that's the thing. I've used it before and got nothing but really nice sand. This time it's full of crap, I'm suprised there weren't beer cans and Clorox bottles that say "Hecho in Mexico". Yeah, that sounds like the stuff you get here at my beach. I currnetly have about fifteen pounds of that junk in my twelve gallon and my fish are all junkies now. Link to comment
nanoty Posted July 17, 2008 Author Share Posted July 17, 2008 I got an email back from Caribseas customer support. She basically said (in really bad grammar) that what I got was a "non-graded, very variable" type of "ocean direct" sand that can contain odd type stuff. She offered to replace the bag with their oolite (sp) sand which is very fine and consistant. I don't think I want to go through this again but I was thinking about getting the replacement sand anyways for future use. Probably not real honest but I really was disappointed. Please excuss the spelling, I am tired. Link to comment
smoknta Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 I got the same thing with my sand. It was full of all kinds of little rocks and pieces of shell and coral. This is my first tank and I thought it was all like that. Wish I would have known that a couple of months ago. It sucks now because all the stuff is coming to the surface. I keep finding new pieces of coral and shell and little rocks. Link to comment
p-daddy Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 The word on both of the freshwater forums I also visit is that Caribsea has been slacking on the quality of its Eco-Complete line of products for the past several months. I wouldn't be surprised if this holds true for Arag-Alive too. I have purchased both since January. I used a bag of "Bimini Pink" which was not half as bad as what you got, but did have some big chunks of rock I am still picking out. The 4 bags of Eco-Complete I just bought for my freshwater planted had very large chunks of red flourite-type clay in it, when its supposed to be all black. Hopefully Caribsea realizes that consumers recognize this drop in quality and they get their act together again. I would take the bag of Oolite, I mean hell you can always sell it, and honestly what better could their customer service do than replace it? Link to comment
qbical Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 yea that is crappy when i got my bag or agra-alive (crushed coral kind) i didnt have anything like that or big pieces. i do see these itty bitty shells in my sandbed but they are tiny little guys that i figure are prob. a good thing. ontop of that i was totally about to pick up another bag to put in my new tank. i think i will def. look closely to the bags that is for sure Link to comment
masterbuilder Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 I just used a bag of Fiji Pink. Its a fine sand but not super fine like oolite (spell?). Anywho...mine was clean as a whistle. Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.