Buying Live Sand

[eaglesatc]

I have been shopping around to set up my first saltwater tank and one of the LFS that I went to wanted to sell me what they call live sand. The price of it is 24.99 for a 20 lb. bag. When I search on the internet the prices of live sand our 3 to 4 times this. Is this normal for a LFS to have the live sand that much cheaper than the internet? On the bag it says its Aragonite Reef Sand.

Also there is a shelf life date on the back of the bags in the LFS and the date is Feb. 1, 2006. Is this why its cheap and would that lack much of what newer sand would have as far as critters?

 

[JimR]

You can buy Aragonite reef sand for about $44 per 40# bag online, including shipping. I paid the same at the LFS.

As for Live Sand, dont bother. The sand will become "Live" once you add some Live Rock. For the money live sand will cost, it is better spent on the live rock.

The "Live Sand" in the bag on the self really isnt Live sand as you would think it was. There are no "critters", just biological organisms.

 

[jap1]

When I set up my tank I bought about 10 lbs of live sand from my LFS. It was the sand from one of their ghost shrimp tanks, so it was full of wonderful muck and organisms. Then I laid the nice pretty Caribsea aragonite on top of that. I've read that even a handful of live sand will feed the rest of your sand, so just ask your LFS for some out of one of their tanks.