Continued from page 7
Comments received from Luis Mercado on Further Possibilities
Albert, I read the "Culturing Your Own Live Sand" article last night and must say it was a great one. Extremely detailed and precise.
One other method I like to use is to put a couple of pieces of live rock from your tank in with the sand to give it a starter culture of bacteria and other microbial life.
A second method that also works well, is to buy a few pound of live sand from a reputable dealer, not a lot maybe 3-5 lbs., and use that to start the culture. Although, as you pointed out this method has some risks as far as parasites are concerned, the risks would be negligible in a separate container, as no fish or corals would be in there with the sand. The parasites would die for lack of a host. This method I have used many times and cycles the sand fairly quickly.
I will be preparing a text review of your article to put on my Web Site later tonight.
One last note, you might want to mention that hobbyists who want to use live sand, but don't want to add it to the tank for whatever reason, will still derive the benefits of using live sand by placing the sand in separate sump under the tank. This would have the same benefits of nitrifying and denitrifying but would very easy for a hobbyist to implement without having to feel he is disrupting the look of the tank.
I like the sand in the tank but have been asked by some hobbyists about this because they do not like having sand on the bottom or their tank has been set up for so long they have encrusting organisms on the bottom they would rather leave there.
Luis:
I totally agree with the suggestions you made as additional alternatives. I have used the methods you describe myself, and they do indeed work real well.
The intent of the original article was to keep the sand as pure and devoid of parasites and disease as possible. You are correct though, anything introduced when the "outside of the tank" method is used, would die off for lack of hosts as long as the process is not stopped for 35 to 40 days to ensure that all bacteria and parasites have died off.
The only danger that remains though, is the introduction of carnivorous worms which would survive the period of cycling, especially if the sand layer is thick enough. Again though, these worms would be present in tanks anyway, e.g. bristle worms, so the end result would be just about the same. On the other hand, with good care and maintenance these animals can be kept out of the tank and the hobbyist is then not at risk (or I should say the animals are not at risk).
Another danger I see when using live rock under the "outside of the aquarium method" is that other animals could be introduced which would, again, make it through the cycle. I am particularly referring to Mantis Shrimp and similar undesirable animals. Nudibranchs fall in this category too. If they are introduced while the process of culturing is going on, and are then added to the tank the hobbyists will have to take all kinds of measures to remove them. In the methods described, this is not the case since no life forms what so ever are introduced in the culturing vats which gives the hobbyist the added benefit of knowing that the live sand is not only live but also free of disease and animals that are unwanted in the aquarium.
The sand that has been cultured could be screened to make sure it does not contain anything that is undesirable. However, this puts an additional burden on the hobbyist. I find that limiting such burdens makes the hobbyists' life easier and less prone to errors. Screening sand is not easy to do. Even when it is done the hobbyist does not always know what is beneficial and what should be removed. Hence my "purer" methods described in this article.
To contact Albert J. Thiel About Albert J. Thiel
The original of this article is located at http://www.athiel.com.
Published with permission of the Author.
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