A cup of live sand

[imcosmokramer]

I attended my first meeting this past Friday. (and joined the club)

I wanted to thank the members who put in the time/work into their presentation, so that we can learn. Thanks to everyone else who answered my questions.

I just started my 75 a few weeks ago. Dtip was kind enough to bring some Chaeto which I put in my fuge. I read everywhere that you should put in a cup or so of live sand from an established tank to seed the fuge and tank (is that right?). Would anyone in the cleveland heights area be willing to donate a little bit of sand?

Assuming someone would, do I just spread it on top of the current sandbed in the tank/fuge? or do I need to mix it around?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Fdfiremedic]

I am on the westside but I have some sand if you need

 

[Jim_Leyland]

I think everyone attending the frag swap should bring a few small bags of sand and swap em out with other members! that way you could get different bacteria (sp) that you don't have.. if anyone wants to swap with me ill bring some

 

[alix2.0]

Re: A cup of live sand

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12159567#post12159567 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by imcosmokramer

Assuming someone would, do I just spread it on top of the current sandbed in the tank/fuge? or do I need to mix it around?

i think you just spread it on top of your dead sand. over time the little critters will reproduce and spread, and your whole sandbed will become live.

 

[Dtip]

One common way to transfer sand without the mess is to use a non-toxic nylon stocking that holds the old, or live, sand, and just sit it on your new sand until the various critters transfer, without necessarily transferring over the sand itself or the decaying organics that might be in it. But just mixing is probably just fine in this case.

However, the real issue is just what you want in your sand.

The bacteria part of live sand you already have if your tank is working at all: as long as you've seen your ammonia go up, then down, your nitrites go up, and then down, and some sort of action in nitrates, then your sand and everything else in the tank is live (the main problem with some new setups is that the cycle never starts in the first place because there isn't enough decay: the key is documented increase and then decrease, not the final levels).

This is why bagged "live sand" is often a big ripoff: the "live" part is just the same old bacteria you will get eventually in any case, plus water, which means you just pay more money for less sand. It's only worth it if you really can't wait for your bacteria population to grow on its own (which takes more time of course).

It's particular critters you find that really matter. Bristleworms. Hair worms. Microcrustaceans like pods. Some people have these, some people don't, and not every clump of sand one takes is going to contain them (in fact most probably wont have bristleworms, which often end up hiding more in live rock than in the sand), because often populations in normal tanks crash and spike, and there's not a good way to tell what species is at what level.

 

[imcosmokramer]

Alright, so I have 50lb of live rock in the DT. I just added some "dead" sand to the fuge with the Chaeto. Will "life" make it's way down to the fuge, or should I take some LR, and put it in the fuge? I don't have any "rubble" at the moment. I suppose I can break a larger piece of rock into smaller pieces, or just pick some up on the next LFS trip.

I assume a Bristleworm can't make it's way down there on it's own since it will never surf the overflow.

 

[fambrough]

You will be amazed how quickly life will migrate from the live rock in your display tank to the sand in both the display and refugium. All manner of worms and pods will end up in your sump. If you wanted to speed it along, take a small rock or a bit of rock rubble and put it in the fuge...can't hurt, but it isn't a pressing necessity. It can and does happen in good time, pretty quickly.