Live Sand ?

[Dwhitt1981]

Is the bagged LS you see in the store any good? I think its arag-live or some thing like that. They say it helps the cycle and all that.If it works then it's cool but I don't want to pay $30 a bag for plain or dead sand.:D

 

[ccCapt]

Save your $ and just buy the dry aragonite sand. You can ask your LFS, if they have sand in any of their displays, to sell or give you a cup or so to help seed your new sand.

 

[Dwhitt1981]

So the bagged stuff is crap.

 

[daugherty]

yep well its not crap is good sand but for what you pay for it it is crap. you can get a couple pounds of live sand that is from a tank at your lfs for a couple bucks and save a ton of money.

 

[wontonflip]

I fell for that live sand deal at my lfs...hehehe. But when i ran it by the reefers here, they said how can it still be live if there's no circulation or oxygen or anything. makes sense now LOL Live and learn.

 

[Bifferwine]

The wet "live sand" in a bag is still live because it has enough water and oxygen to keep the bacteria going. But if you buy one bag of "live sand" and the rest dry sand (cheaper), the dry sand will quickly get seeded by the live sand. Same as if you use live rock.

 

[wontonflip]

But how long can the oxygen and water keep the bacteria alive for? You don't know how long it's been sitting in some factory or in transport or let alone in the store, right? There's no guarantee it's live, i would guess.

 

[daugherty]

the bags have a shelf date on them i guess a best by date

 

[yote]

I'm with Capt on this one.
What little bacteria MIGHT be alive in that bag isnt going to be enough to keep your tank from cycling.So you might as well save the money and buy the cheaper dry sand.

 

[Dwhitt1981]

I thought it all sounded like a bunch of :pooh: . So the dry sand I'll need to rinse out in a bucket of SW right? I mean I don't just chunk it in the tank. What if I can't get my hands on some seeding sand from my LFS? I have a friend with some SW tanks but he doesn't keep them up like he should. So I realy don't need to use his do I? Thanks again

 

[yote]

Rinse the dry sand with freshwater.Its going to take a lot of it,as it needs to be dust free when your done rinsing.
Also,the live sand from your friends tank would still be good for seeding yours.

 

[Bifferwine]

Yeah, your friend's sand will be fine, even if his tank is in bad shape. All you want out of it is the bacteria, which it will have.

 

[dcantucson]

Couldn't Dwhitt cycle the sand in a tub outside the tank for 3-4 weeks then add it to the aquarium after the bacteria has a chance to grow. Could start it with some good tank water from the friend. This is of course if the aquarium's system has already gone through it's cycle. Would this work anyway? Just a thought.

 

[tankedchemist]

well, wouldn't you likely loose at least some of the denitrifying bacteria? I mean, if just stirring up your sandbed kills some of 'em... but the regular ol' nitrifying ones might be ok. just a guess though :)

 

[yote]

The only thing about cycling sand then moving it,is your going to stir up the crude thats down in the sandbed itself.That can cause ammonia and nitrite spikes.
Thats the main reason your not supposed to disturb a DSB.