sand
- Thread starter joebust
- Start date
Valentini89
New member
You're going to have some sort of cycle most likely anyway, I would just use new live sand.
mcgyvr
New member
I personally always recommend starting with new "dry" sand..
Used sand can be used but you need to clean/rinse it VERY well as its fully of decomposed poop,etc.. from years or whatever of use..
Personally the cost of sand is low enough that rinsing old sand is just not enough of a money saver for me...
I also don't think there is much if any value in "live sand".. From my experiences on systems where I used live sand I had worse initial algae/diatom,etc.. blooms (the normal ugly stages were worse) even though it might have cycled the tank quicker due to whatever bacteria may have been present in that sand..
Nor do you know how long its sat on a shelf in a warehouse so the amount of actual beneficial bacteria in it may be very low..
Used sand can be used but you need to clean/rinse it VERY well as its fully of decomposed poop,etc.. from years or whatever of use..
Personally the cost of sand is low enough that rinsing old sand is just not enough of a money saver for me...
I also don't think there is much if any value in "live sand".. From my experiences on systems where I used live sand I had worse initial algae/diatom,etc.. blooms (the normal ugly stages were worse) even though it might have cycled the tank quicker due to whatever bacteria may have been present in that sand..
Nor do you know how long its sat on a shelf in a warehouse so the amount of actual beneficial bacteria in it may be very low..
billdogg
Well-known member
^^^This, x1000^^^
I do like to "seed" the dry sand with a cup or two of live sand from a known source one of my other tanks) just to give it a little kickstart, but otherwise, I have always used 100% dry.
The supposedly "live" sand in a bag at your LFS or online is just a waste of $$$ that can be better used on other things. Although it *may* have some small amount of denitrifying bacteria in it, the diversity of beneficial organisms just isn't there.
If you buy from someplace like TBS, you'll at least get a quality product, but you will still be paying a premium for what will come naturally given a reasonable amount of time.
