Nature's Ocean Bio-Activ Live Natural White Cichlid Sand - 2 lbs - Supports pH Balance, Enhances Water Stability, Ideal for African Cichlid Tanks

To start here’s the good: love the natural look of this sand in my cichlids aquarium setup. Also, it buffered the water perfectly at 8.2. I added 4 bags (80lbs, about) to a 75 gallon tank and it covered the bottom with about an inch, which is what I wanted. Now the negatives. First off, two of the four bags were leaking slightly, no problem, although I hoped it wouldn’t affect the “live” aspect of this sand. Upon opening, the bags smelled of eggs. I figured this was okay, because it mentioned anaerobic bacteria present, and sulfur is produced anaerobically. That is also what may happen in deep substrates. Mine was not going to be deep, and indeed the smell cleared up after adding it to the tank and filling with tap water treated with Tetra AquaSafe. (I chose AquaSafe over Prime because I was using Dr Tim’s All in One fishless cycling product). Most people said not to rinse this sand because, obviously, it is “live” and hence the high price tag. You would kill off and wash away all beneficial bacteria. Of course after installing it into the tank, it was extremely cloudy. I waited several hours before turning on a new Fluval FX4 canister filter. It was not stirring up the bottom at all, but had a nice flow. All the sand particles settled and it began to clear a bit. However, after 4 weeks it is still very milky. Looks like you poured milk in it. I began cycling the tank a couple days after installation. Using ammonium chloride and bacteria to fishless cycle. It was a couple weeks before the ammonia came down to zero and nitrites were appearing, and I was prepared to continue the cycling a few more times because I need to have this tank at high stocking levels. However, the milkiness never went away. I added SeaChem Clarity with no effect. Frustrated at the four week point, I have torn down the tank and removed all the sand and begun to wash it in buckets. Hours of agitation with a hose sprayer and the water off the sand is still milky. Even left in water overnight , it appears clear until you begin to fill and rinse. UPDATE: Finally, I decided to put SMALL (5lb.) amounts of the sand into a 5 gallon bucket and TILT it at an angle while agitating the hose and rinse water, allowing a constant overflow to flush out the dust. This actually worked to clear the sand. I installed it and it looks perfectly white and mostly not too cloudy. After 3 weeks of cycling and settling in with fish, I added Chemipure blue, and the water is now crystal clear. Yay!

We added 4 bags of sand to our 75 gallon. It gave us a base of 1.5" after everything settled. Do not wash this product as it contains everything needed to cycle the tank. Once added, it took a full 3 days with filter running to be crystal clear. After adding rocks, it stirred up the sand a little but it cleared up in 4 hours. The ph of the water after 3 days was sitting at 8.2. We did a water change to get the small shells and pieces of wood from the sand and took out 10 gallons. Once we put water back into it. The ph fluctuated down to 8.0 and was back to 8.2 in less than a day. My advice is to be patient. Its a great quality product. We found no smell in the tank after adding and it was just a waiting game to see how long it would take to clear up. It looks great now. Totally recommend for African Cichlids.

I had added this 24 hours after another brand bag of black sand. It was very cloudy, which was expected, especially since I didn't rinse it, just added it as is since I wasn't sure if the beneficial stuff would get washed away if I tried to rinse it. I had stirred it up a little more after approximately 6 hours of being in there when I reached in to comb through the sands to combine the 2 colors. After 24 hours it's much clearer, still a little cloudy, but much better than it was. Water parameters were fine to move my fish into it so I was happy and know that eventually it'll be cleared up even more. The fish didn't show any issues moving directly from one tank to the other (I made sure the temperatures were about even before doing so) and have been swimming happily around. My PH is holding steady at 7.5.

It took about 24 hours for the water to completely clear up, but it looks awesome once it does! Extremely fine sand and the Mbunas seem to love it. I added 1 Mbuna 24hrs after adding the sand to the tank, and he never showed any signs of stress, which seems to confirm the claim on the bag that the bacteria in the bag “instantly cycles” the aquarium. Also seems to buffer the Ph well...been holding steady around 8.0.

I have a 50 gallon tank and I purchased three bags and it was just the right amount! It looks amazing more importantly my fish Unity ( red dragon flowerhorn cichlid ) absolutely loves it! All my test came out great and I'm all & all really happy and will always recommend this sand. the photo included is 13 hours after adding the sand. ☆ UPDATE ☆ The second, third, & fourth photo are of my tank after 10 days of adding the sand & one water change ( 15% ). I love this sand! It's so clean and white and most of all there are little shell's mixed in. I will forever always ONLY buy this. The samd doesn't get sucked into my vacuum and is very easy to clean much easier then gravel.

Added unwashed to my new sand substrate aquarium. Cloudy yes, but cleared in 2 1/2 days. Mixed the product and my substrate and it looks fantastic! Not perfect white, bits of color and texture a nice improvement. Added plants today, and in a month new fish!! Great product, easy to use, worth every penny.

Beautiful, brilliant white sand. Very natural looking. Fine sand with some larger rubble pieces that only seem to add to the visual appeal. I had NO cloudy water at all after the initial setup, and added my fish the same day. I also added Fluval Cycle and I’ve had no problems with my Tanganyikan cichlids. They are robust and healthy. I’ll use this product again.

Bag of wet substrate without excessive processing. That's how you know you got the good stuff. Purchased this for my new South American cichlids tank and when the bag says instant cycling they mean it. Fish and substrate went in Sunday evening and Thursday no signs of nitrate or nitrite. That's amazing with two blood parrots, 2 Jack Dempseys, and a tiger oscar. Now if there marinetrash canister filter only worked correctly I'd be golden. My only issue with this product is I didn't purchase more. It's got a natural to the extreme look. So if you want a pretty looking bottom I'd buy something to go over top of this to achieve the look you want. But hands down buy at least one bag to supercharge cycling.

Nice sand, seems to be great for the shrimps so far. It takes 1 day for the cloud water to clear up.