live sand

[mako]

Good evening everyone. I had a question about live sand. I will seed the bagged sand I bought at aqua addicts with some live to make it make it all live eventually. my question is should I get the live sand that is packaged in bags I've seen at LFSs or order from an online supplier. The online sand seems to have bacteria as well as worms and other organisms while the stuff in the bags at the LFS only have bacteria (I think). What do you recomend. Thanks

[Behrmon]

30345

You might just want to post your location and ask for some locally.:)

[JCheung]

umm you have to remember with the good stuff also comes the bad. There may also be unwanted hitchhikers in that sand. You'll eventually get all the worms and junk from the live rock that you should be getting. You could also buy some of the sand that is for sale in the critters, rock, and sand forum. Some of that stuff is going for pretty darn cheap. And welcome to the boards.

[biggyclops]

i would do both live sand and seed it with the new stuff.. i have in the past mix one part live sand (came in the bags) with 4 part new stuff..

[biggyclops]

also research what kind of sand you want to use.. i had argonite (crushed coral) and found that it trapped a loooooooooooooooooooooooot of detrius.. and the star fish i had :( did not like it.. so now i have to change it all over to sugar sand.. which is a wicked pain in the butt..

[uprr]

by adding live rock ontop of your sand you will get some definate added benifits to your sand.:)

[nichols41]

30345

You might just want to post your location and ask for some locally.:)

I agree. Most local reefers would give you a cup of live sand. That's about all you need to get things started.

[worcestereefer]

Get a bit of chaeto if you can when you get some live sand from somebody. It can really jumpstart your pod population. To think, my pod population is all decendants of a bit of chaeto from you Mr. Nichols.