Is paying premium $$ for 'live sand' necessary?

PrisonCityReef · May 28, 2009

I've heard of people buying sand from Home Depot, Menards, Lowes, etc and using it in their tank. What kind of sand can I get that will work? My BC came with some live rock,water, and crushed coral. I'd prefer to use sand. Is there a certain brand or classification of sand that I need?

I have a maxijet 900 upgraded pump and a Koralia 1 in a 14g Biocube. I'm thinking 1mm - 2mm sand grains would be fine. Sound about right?

Thanks!

PCR

ie - Lowes has this stuff:
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=10392-286-111351&lpage=none

beaslbob · May 28, 2009

From what I hear the best sand is calcium carbonate not silicate. To test you can take a spoon full of the sand and pour vinegar over it. If it fully dissolves and fizzes then it is calcium carbonate. Silicate sand would not dissolve and fizzzzzzzzzzz.

There used to be "tropical play sand from the carribean" which was good. Even though it said right on the box "not recommend for aquarium or traction use".

Years and years ago some used play sand with crushed oyster shells mixed in. The osyter shells were supposted to buffer calcium.

One problem with non calcium carbonate play sand is diatoms.

But then I used play sand with crushed coral on top on my 55g and it seemed to work fine. Even with a few brown algae problems at first. I also balance out the tank with macro algaes to maintain unmeasureable nitrates and phosphates.

just my .02

Yellowtang · May 28, 2009

Many people have used the Lowes sand and not had issues, other than it is not white its a little darker towards tan. A lot will say no and alot will say yes. It's not aragonite which is the preferred substrate. They say it rinses clean easier than other sands tryed. JMO but I don't see anything wrong with it if you can stan the color.

JR,

beaslbob · May 28, 2009

Yellowtang said:
Many people have used the Lowes sand and not had issues, other than it is not white its a little darker towards tan. A lot will say no and alot will say yes. It's not aragonite which is the preferred substrate. They say it rinses clean easier than other sands tryed. JMO but I don't see anything wrong with it if you can stan the color.

JR,

Oh

that's the reason my sand looks tan. :wink:

(good point)

my .02

AZDesertRat · May 28, 2009

If you can find aragonite or calcium based sand it does look better. It does not have to be live bagged sand, in fact I prefer it not be. I used 330 lbs of dry Southdown in my 100G but its tough to find today. You can get dry calcium sand in bulk at most LFS and online then seed it with a few cups of real live sand out of a couple friends established systems. Much better diversity that way and it will colonize bacteria and critters rapidly.

ReeferGoalie · May 28, 2009

My 65g display has CaribSea live sand in it...the attached 50g sump has regular old play sand in it. I've used play sand in the majority of my tanks without issue (mostly due to cost). There's really nothing wrong with it, but you do need to wash it well (or you can make a cheap micron filter with parts from HD/Lowe's/Menard's).

ficklefins · May 28, 2009

You have a 14g tank correct? At that size I would just invest in nice sand and not worry about trying to save a few bucks on something is going to be a big aesthetic part of your setup. With a 2-3 inch sand bed you won't need a great deal to fill up your 14g. I ended up going with 10-20 lb bag of caribsea special grade reerfloor sand (see link below) on my 29g biocube and I really like the look. You will want to rinse the sand before using it so getting it "live" wasn't my main concern, just the look of the final product.

http://www.caribsea.com/pages/products/dry_aragonite.html

BTW I couldn't remember how many lbs the bag was, which is why I said 10-20lbs.

PrisonCityReef · May 28, 2009

ficklefins said:
You have a 14g tank correct? At that size I would just invest in nice sand and not worry about trying to save a few bucks on something is going to be a big aesthetic part of your setup. With a 2-3 inch sand bed you won't need a great deal to fill up your 14g. I ended up going with 10-20 lb bag of caribsea special grade reerfloor sand (see link below) on my 29g biocube and I really like the look. You will want to rinse the sand before using it so getting it "live" wasn't my main concern, just the look of the final product.

http://www.caribsea.com/pages/products/dry_aragonite.html

BTW I couldn't remember how many lbs the bag was, which is why I said 10-20lbs.

Not a bad way of looking at it. I saw some sand on ebay that I'm looking at. Pretty white stuff. I know the white sand will never stay pure, pristine, and white, but I think it would look nice contrasting some coraline covered rocks.

Burks · May 28, 2009

PrisonCityReef said:
Not a bad way of looking at it. I saw some sand on ebay that I'm looking at. Pretty white stuff. I know the white sand will never stay pure, pristine, and white, but I think it would look nice contrasting some coraline covered rocks.

Who is the seller?

There is one on there I bought sand from, it was junk. It's just play sand. Doubt it was even live, had zero smell to it but sure as hell did spike my ammonia levels through the roof.

And I met him in person versus having it shipped. So it was "fresh".

I don't even buy live sand any more. Just use whatever I want and seed it with sand from other tanks.

brandyrb · Jun 1, 2009

I've bought regular carib sea fine argonite sand and their live sand. The live sand has no silicates, so you won't get the nasty diatom bloom that comes with the other sand. I didn't anyway.

LitlBailey · Jun 2, 2009

It seems like most people recommend to just seed regular sand, but what do you do when you don't have access to an established tank?
I'm in the process of putting a tank together, but there is absolutely no one in the area that I know of who has saltwater tanks. In a situation like mine, where would be the best place to buy live sand from?

ficklefins · Jun 2, 2009

LitlBailey said:
It seems like most people recommend to just seed regular sand, but what do you do when you don't have access to an established tank?
I'm in the process of putting a tank together, but there is absolutely no one in the area that I know of who has saltwater tanks. In a situation like mine, where would be the best place to buy live sand from?

Live sand isn't a make or break situation. If you get live rock than eventually your sand will be seeded with enough life to make up for the fact that your sand has nothing in it. In my opinion, getting live sand isn't really worth the effort or money of buying something online and having it shipped.

reefboy · Jun 3, 2009

I don't think so Ive set many up with dead with no problems it will give you a good jump start if the sand is good live sand meaning most of the animals are alive and haven't been crushed by being moved into the bag or container I think your better off getting a seeding from a friend and or just let the animals in your rock seed it.

moto826 · Jun 18, 2009

live sand is not worth it

steri · Jul 6, 2009

My .02.

While buying premium LS is not needed, especially if you have LR in your tank, I would not buy sand from Home Depot or something like that. You just don't know where it came from or what kinds of chemicals could be in it. You do not need to buy Live Sand, but I would still buy dried sand from some place that was not Home Depot.

Ya, and I would use sand over CC any day. CC can turn into a nitrate factory.

meisen · Sep 5, 2009

I think there should be a large distinction made between the CaribSea live sand products and real live sand. Live sand directly from the ocean, shipped quickly is actually a great thing to supplement your sand bed with. No need for it all to be live, with a healthy amount of sand to innoculate it you'll get all live sand in a few months (or recharge an existing bed). A good second choice is to use sand thats from established tanks. The concern with that is that you'll introduce a pest species so you do have to be careful about that.

Anyway, I have seen the CaribSea product up close and under a microscope and there is nothing live to speak of (how could there be in a bag for weeks or months?). I am sure their claims are true, that there are millions of bacteria on there. There are millions of bacteria on most natural surfaces (ewww!). But bacteria alone does not make sand live IMO. You need thousands of the sand dwelling microfauna to truly make it live. Without these, its more like regular sand. The one really nice thing about it is that its already risnsed and graded thus no sandstorm effect. You have to decide if thats worth the price premium (less than it was, like maybe .30/lb over dead stuff I think now).

starfish · Sep 5, 2009

Caribsea Ocean direct sand is a little finer grain sand than their popular fiji pink.It is a little cheaper than the fiji pink. West caribean is also good. I don't get it you spend all this money for a system and you are going to skimp on good quality substrate to save a few dollars in a 14g tank. One 20# bag with a little left over isn't that much money. And you are starting out with clean substrate w/bacteria and with the live rock tank cycles fairly quick especially if you use brigtwells bacter7 or seachem stability to help kick it in gear and it makes a stable system. JMO .02