Carib Sea Ocean Direct Natural Live Sand - Instant Aquarium Setup (ACS00940)

Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen: Love this brand of sand good mix for a good quality sand. The color is really vibrant and natural I can see some whole shells mixed in. It was easy to clean and place in the tank. Only downside as with any sands is waiting for the cloudiness to dissappear. Plenty of good proteins and live bacteria amazing addition to my Caribsea live rock.

United States on Oct 14, 2023

MANUEL: Sabbia speciale. Sicuramente in futuro ne sceglierò una un po’ più grossa per evitare si alzi facilmente con la pompa di movimento

Italy on Oct 19, 2022

anthony worth: I think it was okay, There was a hole in the bag that had been taped up. Not much fluid left in the sand but my tank cycled within two weeks.

United Kingdom on Apr 29, 2021

DoubleRope: The media could not be loaded.  Not sure if this Qualifies as live sand.
The sand can in and it appeared to have been wet not it was not packaged in water with the bag and do not rinse the sand it take the Bacteria out of the sand I used a small vacuum tank pump to slowly put saltwater in the tank so it didn't get all cloudy. With the live rock I got I was able to have the tank up and running with fish in a month time..
For my 20 gallon tank I only put about half of the bag in the tank.

United States on Mar 07, 2021

Tiffany HoffmanTiffany Hoffman: OK, full disclosure... The single bag wasn't enough for my 75 gallon reef setup.

This is probably the best value on Amazon for calcium carbonate based aquarium sand from a trusted manufacturer... it was when I bought it anyway.

Regardless, this is excellent reef or African Lake Cichlids that require high carbonate hardness and high pH water. Oh, and aquarium husbandry is more about keeping water chemistry consistent with the needs of its inhabitants than anything so don't complain if you just can't seem to keep any Neon Tetras alive in your aquarium with this sand (your neon teras that only thrive in the tannin stained, low-pH environment that the Amazon River is).

Yes, like any other calcium based sand that I've used in my 12 years of reef keeping, professional or personal, this sand will definitely cloud your water for about a week (if you actually have flow like you should in a reef tank).

You've been informed.

United States on Feb 21, 2021

Eddie G.: The sand look amazing in the tank. The only minor problem occurs when you move the sand too much. It could cloud the aquarium in a matter of minutes. As long as you don't mess with the sand too much, you should be good. Also Goby fish are not a good idea. They move the sand too much. Thank You.

United States on Jan 16, 2020

Jordan: Love this substrate

Canada on Oct 22, 2019

Alex: Educate yourself, this should be the motto for someone dealing with saltwater. I will bust any 1 star reviews

First: buying live sand yes, it has good bacteria but when you ship it NO MATTER what, some bacteria will die. Putting sand in a saltwater bag doesn't mean it will keep all its bacteria, you need light, aeration, water movement and exporting of nutrients (this is what we do in our saltwater tank). Its FALSE to say moist sand or mostly dry sand doesn't have good bacteria. This particular product is Carib Sea Ocean Direct NOT their old version of live sand. This doesn't have liquid water in the bag; this has just moisture or mostly dry sand...which still has bacteria.

So my point, you get good bacteria and also lots of dead bacteria which will contain Ammonia, nitrites or nitrates. When adding to the tank it will "crash" your tank (quote from other reviews), it puts ALOT of strain on your already established system.
**Note if your adding this sand to a brand new tank (no life) then this is what you want.

Long story short, WASH this sand if your adding to an established tank!

Lastly: people who complain about cloudiness, this is the nature of...

United States on Jul 13, 2017