CaribSea "Special Grade"

[jmatt]

I've watched a bunch of YT videos and read a bit about sand for my new tank over the last 48 hours and the consensus seems to be to get the CaribSea Special Grade with 1-2mm particles - apparently it's available in their Ocean Direct and Arag-Alive products.

Foe the life of me, I can't see it -- where on the bag does it indicate "Special Grade"? I can't even see where it indicates the grain size on the bag. I looked at a lot of bags today trying to find the elusive Special Grade but no luck.

Since I am probably staring it in the face and not seeing it, can someone point out where, on any of these bags, the words Special Grade appear? Even if you google it, you'll find a bunch of pics but nothing with those words. I stand-by waiting to be embarrassed.

 

[Idech]

I checked and could not see any mention of special grade on the « live » version (Carib-Sea Arag-Alive special grade reef sand).

I’ve found this bag of dry sand where you can see it. Same brand, but dry sand. If you can get dry sand, it will be cheaper.

I couldn’t find any last time and bout the Arag-alive, but rinsed it so I wouldn’t have to deal with the cloudiness for months. See this thread : https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/official-sand-rinse-and-tank-transfer-thread.230281/

Bag of dry sand :

 

[jmatt]

Well I'm trying to avoid dry sand but I appreciate the contribution. And look, the term appears on the one product I don't want!

I mean, even if you watch the BRS videos where they reference it repeatedly and show images of the bag itself, the words "special grade" does not appear on the images they show. I'm just confused by the constant referencing of words that are not used by the manufacturer on the Ocean Direct or Arag-alive products.

 

[Spare time]

It often just says reef sand rather than special grade. Just look for that

 

[jmatt]

It often just says reef sand rather than special grade. Just look for that

It does, I just don't understand why it is referenced as such but appears nowhere on the bags. Even the Caribsea website uses the term but the image it displays does not. It's bizarre.

 

[billyocean]

It does, I just don't understand why it is referenced as such but appears nowhere on the bags. Even the Caribsea uses the term but the image it uses does not. It's bizarre.

I think it used to from what I remember. Pretty sure they dropped it from the bags in the last few years.

 

[Weasel1960]

Agree that it is misleading but their other grades say…IE “Oolite”, ”Fiji Pink”, etc. And if buying live sand don’t rinse it you will be rinsing out the beneficial bacteria that is already in it.

 

[billyocean]

Agree that it is misleading but their other grades say…IE “Oolite”, ”Fiji Pink”, etc. And if buying live sand don’t rinse it you will be rinsing out the beneficial bacteria that is already in it.

I've heard conflicting ideas on this. Supposedly you can rinse it to get rid of the particulates and it doesn't kill all the bacteria. I have no personal knowledge of this other than what I have read though.

 

[Big G]

I've watched a bunch of YT videos and read a bit about sand for my new tank over the last 48 hours and the consensus seems to be to get the CaribSea Special Grade with 1-2mm particles - apparently it's available in their Ocean Direct and Arag-Alive products.

Foe the life of me, I can't see it -- where on the bag does it indicate "Special Grade"? I can't even see where it indicates the grain size on the bag. I looked at a lot of bags today trying to find the elusive Special Grade but no luck.

Since I am probably staring it in the face and not seeing it, can someone point out where, on any of these bags, the words Special Grade appear? Even if you google it, you'll find a bunch of pics but nothing with those words. I stand-by waiting to be embarrassed by your answer.

I'm using "Special Grade [size]" in my reef tank. I used a mix of "dry" and "live" about 3 lbs of dry to 1 lb. of "live" as I'm too cheap to pay for the more expensive all "live" sand. But as others have posted it appears they now just call it "Reef Sand" on the "live sand" bag and "Aragonite" on the dry sand bag.

FWIW, I tried their "Fiji Pink" and it was too fine for my tank as it blew around a lot.

Marine Substrates - CaribSea, Inc.

ARAG-ALIVE!™ ARAGONITE CORALINE™ OCEAN DIRECT™ AQUACULTURE GRAVEL ARAG-ALIVE!™You can now bring the world’s most exotic reefs into your home with CaribSea’s Arag-Alive!™ substrates. Eight environmentally accurate ecoscapes, developed through CaribSea’s cooperation with public aquariums and...

caribsea.com

This is the "live sand" I used and ordered it from Amazon. It still says it when I open the page that I've ordered it before. So yes, appears they just label it as "Reef Sand" now.


This is the "dry sand" I used. You need to rinse this a lot with RODI.

 

[Tamberav]

Anyone ever test what is in bagged "live" sand?

Just curious since marketing isn't always/often honest. I wonder what actually survives in there, what bacteria, and if it is any more useful then a bottle of bacteria.

 

[Tamberav]

Anywho you are right about it not saying it on the bag but everyone labels it as that. I never noticed before until this post. Petco seems to have it on sale.

https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/caribsea-arag-alive-special-grade-sand

 

[Tcook]

IMO the live bacteria is a joke. The lion's share of the filtration is the live rock. I have used many of their sands as well as Southtown. I like the Fiji Pink the best. 0.5-1.5 mm. Great for wrasses. Doesn't blow around in my tank but I don't run a SPS reef crest tank.

 

[Subsea]

Live sand in a bag is a farse. Buy dry sand and inoculate with bacteria in a bottle.

However, I choose diver collected live sand because I seek diversity of micro inverts for janitors in my clean up crew. I also use detrivores in sandbed to recycle detritus into live food using the microbial loop to feed flame scallops and sea apples as well as ornamental sponges.

All of this substrate is 1-2mm of aroggonite.

 

[Spare time]

It does, I just don't understand why it is referenced as such but appears nowhere on the bags. Even the Caribsea website uses the term but the image it displays does not. It's bizarre.

Yeah I thought that too. Maybe they changed the name at some point ?