Living Sand?!?!?

[RocketSapp]

So, I have been collecting things to get ready for setting up my first saltwater tank. So far I have my tank, a skimmer (I just got a 300 gallon skimmer this weekend), a refractometer, about 110 pounds of dry rock, and a few other things.

I have an extra 20 gallon tank which I just cut out out the silicone and replaced it, and I was thinking about setting up that tank with saltwater, 20 pounds of sand, a bunch of dry rock and around 30 pounds of rock and two or three pounds of live rock.

I bought a 20lb bag of "live sand" this weekend. I understand how a live rock can seed dry rock, but how can a bag of sand be live? First of all it's in a bag not allowing any air into the bag. Plus, it's stacked up on a shelf where its in the dark, and probably packed in a box before that. Who knows how long it sat there in the dark.

So tell me, how can this be called "live sand"?

Tim

 

[ErinCahir]

This is precisely why "live" sand is a ripoff.

 

[Sidekick41]

+1 ErinCahir

Sounds like you are well on your way. good luck.

 

[RocketSapp]

Yeah, I have been reading, and reading, and reading... I think I have a good plan of attack. I have started building my stand, I am using just about the same style as the stand I just finished for my fresh water 55 gallon. I have built the main base of the stand and will be skinning it with Red Oak and then stained and sealed.

Here is my 55 gallon stand, it will look about the same but it will be much larger.

 

[ninjafish]

I know Erin has seen the sand come in on the retail side , so maybe she will have something to add to this.

I have worked on the wholesale side of the hobby , and the way "live" sand is stored is a joke. The 10 lb. bags are packaged 4 to a box , the 20 lb. are 2 per box. The boxes are placed on a pallet , wrapped in shrink wrap , and sent out the door. The location where I worked is NOT climate controlled , and it is FREEZING in there in the winter. We would use propane heaters in the winter to keep warm while at the computers in the warehouse. In the temperatures that I have experienced there is absolutely zero chance of any reef dwelling bacteria surviving.

 

[ErinCahir]

It's the same way for retail side.

What I do to seed my dry sand is ask my LFS for a handful of their sand. Depending on how much they like me they either give it to me for free or charge me a couple bucks for it.

 

[RocketSapp]

OK, I think I figured it out... By labeling a bag "Living Sand" they are really saying, hey, there is a ton of crap in this sand. Like twigs, worm bodies, and other things that are going to decompose and make your tank cycle no matter what. Not only that but it's been 24 hours and the water is still not clear from the sand not settling.

Tim

 

[ninjafish]

OK, I think I figured it out... By labeling a bag "Living Sand" they are really saying, hey, there is a ton of crap in this sand. Like twigs, worm bodies, and other things that are going to decompose and make your tank cycle no matter what. Not only that but it's been 24 hours and the water is still not clear from the sand not settling.

Tim

Run some poly-fil (pillow stuffing) that will help catch the super fine particles and help clear it up pretty fast . You can get a huge bag at Walmart in the craft section for like $3

 

[RocketSapp]

Yeah I actually have a bag of that here for my wet\dry that I run on my fresh water tank. But since I am just setting this up as a FOWLR I don't have a HOB or Sump or anything besides a water pump in the tank. So I really have nothing to put the pillow stuffing in. I do have a couple HOBs but they have both ran in a freshwater tank and have some dried FW algae on them and I had treated some issues before in my FW tank and I don't know if there is going to be any copper "residue" in the filter. I really don't want to take a chance with it.

This morning it was looking better. I am going to check my salt level and other numbers today, and maybe drop in a table shrimp and pick up some live rock this afternoon.

Tim