Arag-Alive
- Thread starter fishinAZ
- Start date
Never heard of it. Is it a "cichlid mix" that comes in a bag filled with water that claims to have "beneficial bacteria" already established with claims of no cycling time and what not? I've seen something like that, but don't beleive it since it wasn't refrigerated, which is probably an absolute neccesity when shipping bacteria.
I used that stuff for setting up my nano reef. There are some substrates available that are cichlid specific and would probably be a better choice.
Yeah....Mooman...that's exactly what it's suppose to be. I'll chose something else and save a few bucks.
Thanks for the replies.
Thanks for the replies.
reiverix, what do you think about the claim that it contains live bacteria? BS or did it work for you?
Live sand, or packaged substrates with bacteria in the bag usually do in fact contain live bacteria. In most cases when setting up a Reef tank its highly reccommended to use live sand, just as it is to use live rock. But for a cichlid tank its not nessecary. IMO its wasting your money because addding an established filter sponge or a bag of gravel does the same thing, at a fraction of the cost.
HTH
-Diana
HTH
-Diana
What ~*LuvMyKribs*~ just saidmooman said:
Now there is Eco-Complete for African Cichlids that supposedly contains live bacteria. I've got the standard eco in my planted but I can't really make a judgement on the effectiveness of the live bacteria because I used the cannister filter from an established 20g. Anyway, people who use Flourite have no trouble cycling a tank.
So I guess my opinion is that in the FW substrates I think the live bacteria is there, but just a gimmick. I'd love to be proved wrong though.
FishinAz, if you do go with the "pre-cycled" substrate, do us a favor and before you add any fish, add pure ammonia up to 5ppm. If it starts to go down right away, then I guess the stuff works, but i doubt it will. If I remember correctly it sold for about six dollars more that the regular chilid mix. My question is still, How can a sealed, unrefrigerated bag of gravel still contain live bacteria after sitting on a shelf for what could be months?
I second reiverix said. I've also got, i think its eco-complete, cichlid mix (sand) in my brevis tank. It was not the stuff that claimed to have live bacteria though (used spnge filter that I stored in my established tank's filter chamber for a month.) It does a great job of upping my ph, looks great, and the fish love it. Still a little pricey, but name the last think you bought at a lfs that wasn't.
I second reiverix said. I've also got, i think its eco-complete, cichlid mix (sand) in my brevis tank. It was not the stuff that claimed to have live bacteria though (used spnge filter that I stored in my established tank's filter chamber for a month.) It does a great job of upping my ph, looks great, and the fish love it. Still a little pricey, but name the last think you bought at a lfs that wasn't.