CaribSea?

[Inno]

Just curious as to what you think a fair price to pay for caribsea aragamax (30lb) would be?

*Yes I realize there is SD, but then again it isn't sterile either...just an opinion.

Thank you, happy reefing!

Inno

[Ram_Puppy]

Gosh, I wish I remember what I paid.. I got it with a 10% maast discount at Austin Aquarium...

one thing to consider with the indo-pacific mix at least, is that it will seperate into strata with a strong flow (and no sifters present)

Nothing but good things to say about it though... I think It ended up being right around 40 bucks for 2 bags, but, again, my memory may be failing on how much I spent, and I bought some reef bones from them at the same time, so not sure.

[captexas]

Fair price? It should only be maybe $8. Not like it cost them anything to make the stuff, just scoop it up from the ground and put it in a bag! But as we all know, once anything is labeled for aquatic use it becomes magical and is almost as valuable as gold! :-) I don't remember what I paid a long time ago when I got some for my 58g. For my 75g, I mixed some of the Pure Aragonite sand with some Southdown that I paid $15 a bag for.

[Ram_Puppy]

oops... I mistook aragamax for arag-alive, which has encapsulated micro-organisms... it is essentially live sand... sorry! :) (Live micro-organism wise, not like what you scoop out of the ocean or a friends tank! :)

[captexas]

Don't waste your money on the arag-alive stuff. To me it just looks like wet sand. As it gets bagged and then sits on a store shelf for who knows how long, anything that was alive at the beginning is most likely dead when you buy it.

[z28pwr]

I like PureAragonite www.purearagonite.com Pretty decent price too.

[Ram_Puppy]

my cycle time using arag-alive was less than a week. It is not just wet sand, it contains heterotrophic, autotrophic, and chemolithotrophic bacteria, whch can survive in a bag just as well as it can survive in a bottle. Each bag is dated with an expiration date as well. Also, it is not scooped of a beach, but mined, and according to the companies sales pitch, highly porus, more so than regular aragonite. I agree with you that you can get the same results by buying aragonite and dosing with a bacteria starter, but I wanted a specific look, the indo-pacific mix gave me that, it was readily available, and I don't regret the purchase.

[Inno]

Fair price? It should only be maybe $8. Not like it cost them anything to make the stuff, just scoop it up from the ground and put it in a bag! But as we all know, once anything is labeled for aquatic use it becomes magical and is almost as valuable as gold! :-) I don't remember what I paid a long time ago when I got some for my 58g. For my 75g, I mixed some of the Pure Aragonite sand with some Southdown that I paid $15 a bag for.

Heh, don't we wish it was all that easy lol

[captexas]

Of course I didn't mean scooped up right from the beach of a carribean island! There wouldn't be any island left by now :-)

It's all marketing to justify a higher price. Really, whatever makes you happy, go for it. You still don't really know what is really in that bag of water and sand. They don't test every bag for it's contents and what gets in there all depends on what's in the water that day. I'd be nervous about putting a bag supposedly full of bacteria that has been sitting on a shelf for awhile. Don't care if it does have an experation date on it. Who knows what else is growing in there by now? lol I think it is much better cycling a tank with live rock, that way you get all the critters and it's more natural. So what if it takes a little longer to cycle. A shorter cycle just means the tank has less of an ability to handle added nutrients to the tank when you add something new. It will then have to go through another mini cycle.

[Ram_Puppy]

True, cycling with live rock is better. and I am not saying that it is the best stuff out there, I bought it for it's look and consistency...

I was trying to clarify the misconception that it was just a bag of water and sand, it is mined, (dry of course) and packaged and shipped in water that has the same stuff as products like batcer-vital and stress zyme. It is not sea water.

Not arguing with you... had I to do over again, I probalby would buy my aragonite in a bag, and just mix in some fine black sand or something to give me the appearance I wanted...

no biggie! :)

[captexas]

No problem. Again, whatever makes you happy, go for it. Everyone has different tastes/ideas on how they want their tank to look. Be interested to see how the tank looks as I don't think I have ever seen a full tank using that sand. Most people just use the regular sand or coral rubble.

[captexas]

LOL, you and your table shrimp! :-)

[Inno]

Of course I didn't mean scooped up right from the beach of a carribean island! There wouldn't be any island left by now :-)

It's all marketing to justify a higher price. Really, whatever makes you happy, go for it. You still don't really know what is really in that bag of water and sand. They don't test every bag for it's contents and what gets in there all depends on what's in the water that day. I'd be nervous about putting a bag supposedly full of bacteria that has been sitting on a shelf for awhile. Don't care if it does have an experation date on it. Who knows what else is growing in there by now? lol I think it is much better cycling a tank with live rock, that way you get all the critters and it's more natural. So what if it takes a little longer to cycle. A shorter cycle just means the tank has less of an ability to handle added nutrients to the tank when you add something new. It will then have to go through another mini cycle.

Actually, their sand comes from a mining company in Florida, same with OldCastle and purearagonite.com...they all go through the same provider, except that OldCastle won't guarantee sand sterility and wisely so in regards to the dry sand.

I agree with cycling w/lr and the arag-ALIVE is nothing special :)