Arag-Alive or Dry aragonite?

[falconut]

Never used the live sand (arag-alive) before, only dry aragonite. Then again, my last tank was setup over 13 years ago. I recently started up a 180 gallon tank, added a 40lb bag of dry Caribsea Seaflor Special Grade Reef to get a thin layer, a little dry base rock and LR directly from my old tank. Cycle appears to have completed and my fish are all transferred over and all is going good. Only thing is the sand is getting some light brownish crap on it, which I believe is normal. I siphon the sand to remove it while doing water changes.

I'd like to add a little more sand to thicken a few areas, probably 15-20lbs. My LFS has both Arag-Alive (20lb) and dry (15lb) bags. I'm just looking to add 1 bag at this time as I'm looking to keep a minimal sand bed this time. Should I just get the dry and rinse well like I did with the 40lb bag or is there a benefit to adding the Arag-Alive?

 

[mcgyvr]

lightish brown dust is "diatoms" and is normal and will go away as free silicates are consumed by the diatoms..


Use dry sand and rinse..

Live sand can have considerable dead/decaying organic material in it that "can" cause a mini-cycle/ammonia issues..

 

[Diana A]

dry

 

[falconut]

Thanks, so dry it is.

Yeah, figured its diatoms & they'll just go away in time.

 

[kmbyrnes]

And lets not forget that with 'Live Sand' you are paying more money for what is essentially just wet sand.

 

[Sthomasson72]

I always use live

 

[Scurvy Dawg]

Go dry and rinse. My first tank I rinsed and the second tank I didn't. I regretted the decision and ended up taking the sand out and rinsing it. The white film and dust was a disaster.

 

[gprdypoo04]

Either is fine.

 

[falconut]

I'll definitely be washing dry. I washed my initial 40lb bag and there was a lot of small partials, which would have caused a huge cloud.