An honest mistake; Carib-Sea sand in an African Cichlid 55 g

[Cafe Jeff]

Dear Aquarium Advice members,

Please excuse my possible stupidity.

Dear Carib-Sea,

After finally deciding to go salt-water, after having maintained freshwater tanks for about 10 years and intermission of another 10, I purchased 40 kilograms of very fine 'Carib-Sea Argonite'--which I assumed was simply over priced sand. After filling the 55 gallon aquarium (and insufficiently washing the sand beforehand), the water became very cloudy. Because the aquarium was to be placed in a Child’s Playroom, I had second and third thoughts about maintaining marine fish as I thought it would be too traumatic if there were deaths related to inexperience and so decided to go with what I was familiar with: African Cichlids who do like quite hard water. A few days after setting up the aquarium, with the cloudiness going down by half, I installed a few small specimens. As african Cichlids are often kept in tanks with coral substrate, dolomite or the like, so I considered that the change of plans would not be that important. After the fact, I came to worry that this particular sand might not be suitable for freshwater African cichlid use (as it seems from the advertisments in FAMA that it is pre-populated with bacteria and this concerns me as it is sea water bacteria) and the cloudiness might not simply be dust but a bacterial bloom and the sand may be an accident waiting to happen. Is Carib-Sea sand suitable for freshwater hard water loving cichlids? So far, the few fish seem to be doing well, but…

My son (and me) would not be happy and there is still time to fix things.


All the best. Jeff


Carib-Sea can be found at www.carib-sea.com. The tank is a tall 55 gallon with 40 kilograms of sand. A Penguin 300, three little cichlids, a tiny plec and some ornaments. Flowerpots soon to come.

[Voodoo Chilli]

I know Caribsea does make "live" sand available to us- but I think it's clearly written on the bag (and a good bit more expensive). If you've got regular, old-fashioned sand without the added bio bugs- you're good to go.

My guess is that you've got the regular sand and are dealing with the joys of new sand in a tank. Don't worry: that WILL clear, eventually. I've seen it take a week or two to completely clear up.

Actually, a lot of folks use the marine sand with their Africans in order to help boost the pH and hardness. I'm just not a big fan of the crushed coral, as a lot of Africans are substrate sifters and the coral can cause injury.

[neide]

I have argonite in both of my big tanks, the marine one and the Chiclid one.

[Cafe Jeff]

Thanks VC and thanks neide.
It is gradually clearing, but very, very slowly.
The thing is, I put the Aquarium together in the middle of the night so as to surprise my son. Speed was of the essence and as such I am not sure what I bought, but it seemed expensive enough.
One downside of the sand is just how visible the fish excrement is. My 3 year old keeps on going, who made that? Jeff

[krap101]

i bought aragnite for 7$ for a 50 lb. bag at home depot. i still have 1/2 a bag outside that im going to give to my cousin. im cycling her tank at my house and im going to take the water out and leave the sand a little moist and drive get my mom to drive over to their house b4 school or something and they can fill it up .

[RocketSeason]

I bought the same sand as you.

Dont worry, You are fine. There will be no I'll effects from your sand. What you have now is what i like to call a Sand Monsoon. It will clear soon. mine cleared up in 2 days.

[Cafe Jeff]

Thanks Krap101, Thanks RocketSeason,

Thanks for alleviating my concerns regarding non-beneficial bacteria in the sand. As to krap101, now that's a deal! Jeff

[Voodoo Chilli]

Jeff-

My smaller tanks seemed to clear up fairly fast (couple of days at the most), but it took almost 2 weeks for the 55 to become crystal clear. That was a nerve racking couple of weeks since it was my first sand tank and I was afraid I'd made a huge mistake- opaque water forever! Needless to say, I'm a sand convert and will NEVER put gravel in a tank again...

The nice thing about using sand is during clean-up: the debris "sits" on the sand- as your son so admirably noted- and can be quickly and easily sucked up with a gravel vac.

[Cafe Jeff]

Oh yeah, my son noticed.
I think he just wanted me to say 'pooh.'
Just as you guys said, the water is gradually clearing. After a week you can now look from one end through to the other. Still a ways to go though. Jeff

[ReefGuru]

The "live" sand made by them is pretty bad. They do have some bacterial cultures growing, but they are minimal. If you did place them in freshwater, they would simply die. Their biomass is relativly small, so should they have died, they would just speed up your cycle along. there is no need to worry. Nothing bad will happen. Its not like you bought real live sand with worms, crustaceans, and several echinoderms. Dont worry, african cyclids will survive the cycle. Just enjoy, and keep an eye on the ammonia and nitrite levels. If they start to get too high, do a partial water change just to make it a little easier on the cichlids.

Andrej