Live Sand.. What makes it live?

[MotoFish]

If you start a tank with base rock and dry sand from a bag (rinsed before going into tank) fill the tank with water you made... Where is the life? There is none.. So you let it cycle and bacteria's begin to bloom..

Does this make your sand bed "live"? Or do you need all the worms and bugs and critters that live in the sand bed to truely have a live sand bed?

I've read that you should not disturb a sand bed as the lower layers will contain harmful gases that you do not want "free floating" in your water column.. I can see this with the bacterial only sand bed.. But what if your sand bed is teeming with life.. It is believed that then your sand bed is being turned over so often that these gases do not ever get a chance to accumulate.. So what is "live sand" which is more beneficial?

I have seen websites that offer "starter packs" or "seed packs" for live sand.. are these good to invest in? Anyone know the best places to get them from?

 

[clownfreak]

Live sand is made by all the little bugs, planktons, critters, bacteria and whatnot. If you use dry rock and dry sand you will need to add at least some actual live rock. You may still get the bacteria (maybe, I'm not 100% sure) but you'll miss out on a lot of the extra, very good microscopic and little critters.

 

[scubasteve06]

I think that the only reason that CaribSea for example calls their sand live is because it is packaged with a little bit of SW in the bag so that the sand stays wet. If they harvested the sand truly from the ocean and keep it wet as it stays in the bag then it would truly be live sand since it would have all the 'critters' that you would want.

 

[CEA]

True live sand is establish sand that has a large population of microfauna such as copepods, amphipods, worms, snails, starfish or other critters as well as bacteria. All the "live sand" they sell in bags is not really all that alive and while there might be a chance that some bacteria is still somewhat alive in it, it is not likely to be a significant amount.

But I still buy those wet sand bags because sometimes they don't offer specific types in dry form. But dry sand is cheaper and pretty much the same as wet sand unless you are getting wet sand from someone's established tank.

 

[scubasteve06]

FWIW I have never bought "live sand". I used live rock that was basically base rock before being placed in a 300g rubbermaid with live rock for months at the lfs I got it from. I figured that if I used live rock there was no need in buying a 40$ 40lb. bag of sand and bought the 20$ 40lb bag of dry sand instead.

 

[MotoFish]

So in reality, if you want a true live sand bed, ou will have to seed it with something.. Not just rely on bacteria's to populate it or for "wet sand" out of a bag to do it..
I have seen websites that sell seed packs for sand beds, anyone actually use any of those? Any suggestions on what is good and what isn't?