Live Sand/Which to choose???

[FATTIRE280]

I like the look of pure white, fine sand. I am planning on getting "The package" from tampa bay saltwater (My 150 is being built) but the live sand they send appears to be more brown & much larger grain size. Am I making a mistake if I dont use their sand & go with a white sugar sized sand?

I wanted to go with about 1'' in my display. I have a sump/refuge(75g) do I use the lve sand there?

Any suggestions??

 

[sir_dudeguy]

well i dont really like buying live sand anyways. I mean it all turns live in the end anyways, so it would be cheaper to buy non-live sand of the color/texture you like best.

I like the oolitic stuff. I got mine from drsfostersmith.com and its very fine and white. Much better than the regular aragonite stuff that i used to get.

A better option for you would be to get all the sand that you like (not the live) and then find someone with live sand in their tank (not a store) and put a scoop of that in your tank. That would be by far better than paying a whole bunch for live sand IMO

 

[Mr James]

If you can get a small amount of live sand from a friend or even TBS (Tampa Bay Saltwater), I'd do it. When I used to run a DSB, I used 90% new sand and 10% live sand to seed the new sand. Make sense??

 

[jdieck]

one inch of sand I will assume is basically for the looks, the grain size depends on how much flow you will have in the tank, if the flow will not be too violent I will usee oolitic, otherwise I would recommend a bit larger size. for that the reef grade of Carib Sea is very good. Thy sell that grade as Aragalive (with bacteria) or dry (without it) THe Aragalive will help cycle the tank a lot faster. The worms and pods you will need will come with the live rock.
If you will cure the rock in the tank do not add the sand until the rock is fully cured and clean, other wise all the dirt from the rock will make a mess out of the sand and will be more difficult to remove.

 

[drummereef]

I would just get dry Caribsea sand and seed it with a few cups of a sand from a friends tank. I won't ever use Arag-Alive again, it's a big ammonia mess in a bag.

 

[Shagsbeard]

I'll sixth the motion not to use live sand at all. You'll do much better without it. Live sand is a gimmick... live rock isn't.

Edit: "The package" is really over sized. For your 150, go with a 50 gal package rather than the 150.

 

[FATTIRE280]

Thanks for all the info! Very helpful!