Is live Sand Necessary?
- Thread starter Agraves77
- Start date
Get regular sand. What they call "live sand" is just sand packed in a bag with water. All sand has bacteria on it. You literally couldnt detect a difference between the products if you tried.
Unless youre talking about actual live sand from the ocean, with animals in it, "live sand" is one of the biggest snake oils sold in the hobby.
Unless youre talking about actual live sand from the ocean, with animals in it, "live sand" is one of the biggest snake oils sold in the hobby.
billdogg
Well-known member
^^^This^^^
or get a cup or two from a local reefer or a trusted LFS and seed your dry sand with it
Live sand is integral but NOT the packaged stuff that says "live sand". Get some nice aragonite sand based on your taste and seed that with live rock and/or samples of sand from established tanks. In a matter of months your entire sand bed will be "live". "Dead" sand with a few pounds of live rock and a cup of sand from an established tank is exponentially better than "live sand" that you get in a bag (which is a total waste of money).
Ron Reefman
Active member
What they ^^^ said!
Start with aragonite sand and even dead rock, it will come 'alive' with bacteria all on it's own. Adding some or all 'live' rock is faster and maybe even better. But buying 'live' sand in a bag is a waste of money.
Start with aragonite sand and even dead rock, it will come 'alive' with bacteria all on it's own. Adding some or all 'live' rock is faster and maybe even better. But buying 'live' sand in a bag is a waste of money.
Pelagic_e36
Member
It is my understanding that during the initial startup of a tank starting with live sand will dramatically reduce the amount of diatoms/algae growth on the bed. Is this true or did my lfs lie to me?
Ron Reefman
Active member
I'm no scientist or biologist, but IMHO your LFS is wrong. Live sand has bacteria that help process ammonia and nitrites that mostly develop due to decay and detritus. Diatoms are algae that use nitrates, phosphates and light. If anything, the bacteria in the live sand would process ammonia and nitrite into nitrate and feed the diatoms, making it worse not better. But that's just my opinion.
I have a good friend who owns an LFS. And if he tells me something I don't know for sure myself, or goes against what I think I know, I always research it or ask people here. Never trust an LFS employee or owner, no mater how well you know them or trust them. :headwally:
Coralfuture
New member
+1
I've done both.....dry rinsed sand IS WAYYYYYYY better(rinsed well there is no cloudy water) and was the same cycle time for me. Just use some Microbacter7 or something like it for better results IME.
This is what I was told as well.
praveen956
New member
I got live sand. But because it is live, you should not wash it before introducing it into the tank. This means that the finer particles are floating around the tank for a longer time. I am going to add an additional bacterial supplement anyways so if I had to do it again, I would get the plain sand and wash it well instead of live sand.
They may think that's the case, so more 'wrong' than 'lying'. Cannot see how it would be the case though.
