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Nature's Ocean Bio-Active
Sand is another product on the market, which claims an instant
cycle in a newly established aquarium. Their website can be
found at www.naturesocean.com.
Here you can find all the information on the product, although
it's a not a very in depth site. The product can be found
widely online as well as in pet stores and usually sells around
$29 (US dollars) for twenty pounds.
Nature's Ocean Bio-Active Sand in my opinion is an excellent
product for saltwater aquarists, who are planning a new aquarium.
My personal experience with it was great. I setup a 10-gallon
aquarium which is now my dwarf seahorse tank. Several people
had recommending this product to me because I wanted a sand-bed,
and didn't want to wait a month or longer for the nitrogen
cycle to take place. I removed 6 gallons of water from my
previous dwarf aquarium, a 6-gallon eclipse, and placed it
into the 10-gallon aquarium. Then added 4 gallons of newly
mixed saltwater. Eventually the sand was in place as well
as my livestock. I never experienced any ammonia or nitrite
in the aquarium; all have been at zero readings. Also some
online friends of mine have used this product using all freshly
mixed saltwater and added their livestock and never experienced
any nitrite or ammonia readings. I believe that this pretty
much proves this product is honest in their advertising of
an "Instant Cycle".
When visiting the Nature's Ocean website you can see pictures
of the product and well as read how it works, and instructions
on cycling your aquarium. This product is indeed "live
sand," bacteria-wise. However there are no critters such
as crabs or bristle worms. This product claims a shelf life
of several months in which I cannot attest to because when
I bought it the pet store had just received the shipment.
However the product is packaged wet, with what I assume is
sea water.
Overall I believe this product is rather great for aquarists
starting a new aquarium and don't want to wait for the nitrogen
cycle to complete over the 4 weeks plus. However this product
would be pretty useless to aquarists wanting to add this sand
to their existing aquarium. The bacteria, which "eats"
the ammonia and nitrite etc, is already present in that aquarium.
That person could achieve a sand-bed by other and less pricey
means.
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