Caribsea Ocean Direct LIve Sand - no expiry date?

[RaymondL]

I picked up a few bags of Caribsea's Ocean Direct Live Sand - I don't see any expiry date on the bag - triple checked each of the bags. I'm assuming then that there's no shelf life for this product unlike their other substrates, which clearly has an expiration date on the bag.

 

[Dburr1014]

I picked up a few bags of Caribsea's Ocean Direct Live Sand - I don't see any expiry date on the bag - triple checked each of the bags. I'm assuming then that there's no shelf life for this product unlike their other substrates, which clearly has an expiration date on the bag.

Correct.
This is why we say you are better off using dry sand.
Any live sand pre-bagged should be rinsed in tap water until clean and one last dip in rodi to displace the tap water.

If it was just bagged and shipped wet yesterday, use as is.

 

[formallydehyde]

I agree with washing it thoroughly. I added CaribSea Ocean Direct to my tank without washing and it caused a massive nitrate spike and made the water really nasty. It was cloudy for days. I had to do basically a 150-200% water change to keep everything in my tank from dying.

 

[RaymondL]

Correct.
This is why we say you are better off using dry sand.
Any live sand pre-bagged should be rinsed in tap water until clean and one last dip in rodi to displace the tap water.

If it was just bagged and shipped wet yesterday, use as is.

So the directions on their bag is misleading - why would they advise not to rinse.

 

[Dburr1014]

So the directions on their bag is misleading - why would they advise not to rinse.

I really don't know. I think... They think it sells fast enough??
There has to be a shelf life.
But in the shipping process, the sand gets ground up more and gets silty.

 

[brandon429]

Unrinsed

Pdxmonkeyboy’s tank


one of fifty threads unrinsed

Caribsea Ocean Direct Cloudyness

Recently filled my tank with RODI + Tropic Marin Salt, Ocean Direct Sand and now just waiting before planning how to cycle it. My question is, how is the best way to clean out this dust cloud from the tank? I don't have any kind of mechanical filtration but I could easily Cable-tie some filter...

www.reef2reef.com

both those were caribsea live sand marked no rinse needed


heres what happens if three hundred reef tanks do rinse, and break the rules. This is all caribsea live sand marked no rinse:

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

The best way to prepare your sand for use in a transferred reef tank, an upgraded reef tank, a reef tank under invasion etc is to put the sand in sections in a bucket and TAP WATER rinse it outside over and over with the garden hose until all the silt / waste is ejected, expect hours of work per...

www.reef2reef.com

notice every page, eight years running, rinsing equals happiness

you don’t need sandbed bacteria in a reef tank. Teaching us that we do is among the gimmicks sellers foist upon buyers to keep the sales wheel going. You can easily find threads where buyers said theirs cleared, so that means among unrinsed tanks you get a mix of outcomes. Above, in the eight year rinse thread, you see there are no mixed outcomes they’re just all perfect happy reefs.


to control all bad outcomes, you’d rinse. To save work effort and take a chance, you wouldn’t

 

[RaymondL]

I didn't do enough research and didn't see these responses in time....I put in 2 bags of the Ocean Direct sand into the tank it's it was cloudy for a night, and in the morning it was clear.

BUT - when I went in to move some rocks around, it was cloudy again like it was. This is is fiasco.....I can't believe Caribsea would advise not to rinse.

For those that didn't rinse, I assume for the life of the tank whenever you stir up the substrate for whatever reason, it'll be cloudy like it was in day one?

 

[brandon429]

for about 20% of customers, yes, the clouding remains until it's re rinsed. the other 80% self clears and holds.

 

[RaymondL]

for about 20% of customers, yes, the clouding remains until it's re rinsed. the other 80% self clears and holds.

Well, at this point, I'm going to see how it goes...I'm cycling the tank now, so I could drain the entire tank and remove most of the substrate and rinse. The reality is, like my other tank, I rarely would be going in and stirring up the substrate once the tank is establish, so maybe I should just do nothing and leave it....<sigh>

 

[kenchilada]

I didn't do enough research and didn't see these responses in time....I put in 2 bags of the Ocean Direct sand into the tank it's it was cloudy for a night, and in the morning it was clear.

BUT - when I went in to move some rocks around, it was cloudy again like it was. This is is fiasco.....I can't believe Caribsea would advise not to rinse.

For those that didn't rinse, I assume for the life of the tank whenever you stir up the substrate for whatever reason, it'll be cloudy like it was in day one?

It will eventually bind up and settle down. No big deal whatsoever.

 

[RaymondL]

It will eventually bind up and settle down. No big deal whatsoever.

Thanks - it's unsettling because 50/50 of people are telling me that I made a huge error by not rinsing, and it'll bring a slew of issues later - weird water parameters and chronic cloudy water. Well, I'm going to assume I'll be okay, but if not, at least I will learn something along the way

 

[brandon429]

it's that you have an 80% chance of it clearing and sustaining, not a 100% chance. we have plenty of threads for months old tank who get clouds with every rock move, it's because different bags of sand degrade particles differently over time, we don't know what state yours was in. most likely it'll clear, if not it becomes one of the example times where it did not clear. time will tell, most likely you're fine.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Thanks - it's unsettling because 50/50 of people are telling me that I made a huge error by not rinsing, and it'll bring a slew of issues later - weird water parameters and chronic cloudy water. Well, I'm going to assume I'll be okay, but if not, at least I will learn something along the way

It will be fine, give it a few days to settle. If you want to clear a little quicker, run with a filter sock (it will pack up a bit quicker).

 

[RaymondL]

it's that you have an 80% chance of it clearing and sustaining, not a 100% chance. we have plenty of threads for months old tank who get clouds with every rock move, it's because different bags of sand degrade particles differently over time, we don't know what state yours was in. most likely it'll clear, if not it becomes one of the example times where it did not clear. time will tell, most likely you're fine.

Thank you - feel better hearing this <crossing fingers>

 

[RaymondL]

It will be fine, give it a few days to settle. If you want to clear a little quicker, run with a filter sock (it will pack up a bit quicker).

Thanks - I do have packs of the Caribisea BioMagnet Clarifier....I could use that to bind the particulates if need be as well, but don't want to overdue it. I don't know if it's a bad thing to use these products a lot.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Thanks - I do have packs of the Caribisea BioMagnet Clarifier....I could use that to bind the particulates if need be as well, but don't want to overdue it. I don't know if it's a bad thing to use these products a lot.

Its a non issue.

 

[GARRIGA]

Flocculant isn’t included in the bags? Have one at home I never used from 2015 which I assume is now all dead. That one I’m rinsing if ever get around to using buy I’ll also just make the debris clump and filter it out. Rinsing takes way too much time.