"Live Sand'', Come With Unwanted Critters ?

[427HISS]

I'm starting a new 125g mixed reef and will be wanting a sand bottom. With a lot of company's having ''live sand'' today, can they house any of the critters we don't,... want in our reefs ?

 

[Gvirgoan]

I've never had anything in my live sand

 

[samnaz]

“Live sand” as in bagged sand from manufacturers like Caribsea? These “live sands” contain live bacteria, nothing undesirable.

 

[427HISS]

So is buying bottled bacteria and adding to sand any better or lower in cost than ''live sand'' ?

 

[cmcoker]

You are buying the sand by weight, so I'd think the dry sand gives you more per dollar, and bacteria isn't so expensive

 

[samnaz]

I recommend buying dry sand and seeding with live rock.

 

[cracker]

Agreed ! I personally question Sellers claim of "our sand is alive " & best to rinse out the silt & seed it yourself whether live or dry sand.

 

[Lingwendil]

I recommend dry with bottle bacteria to start, more for your money for sure. Most of the live sand will be very cloudy without some sort of rinsing anyway, which honestly is a huge pet peeve for me. Buying dry, rinsing until it comes clear, and seeding with some good starter culture or quality, pest-free live rock is a great way to go.

 

[427HISS]

I want a sifting crew like gobies etc, so what size sand and where to buy it ?

 

[Lingwendil]

Bulkreefsupply is my recommendation, and for sand sifters that aren't too small something like caribsea fiji pink would work, larger gobies may do fine with special grade.

Marcorocks also has the bahama stuff that would do well.

Tropic Eden miniflakes or special pink would do well too. Mesoflakes or similar if you want more coarse or have larger sifters.

If it was me, I would likely go with the fiji pink caribsea, unless you want something more coarse. My current build is getting a mix of caribsea and tropic eden to be somewhere around meso/reeflakes overall, and from past experience it should do well for most moderately sized sifters like gobies.

 

[Rufus’ goofs]

I’ve found live limpets inside Carib Sea’s live sand before.

 

[Crashjack]

I've dealt with both many times. I don't care how many times you rinse the dry. It will be cloudier and take longer to clear than the "live", even if you leave out the clarifier that comes with the live. However with a new tank, who cares? I would go with dry for the start-up and then if you ever need to add sand after that, use live.

 

[427HISS]

I’ve found live limpets inside Carib Sea’s live sand before.

Did they pose an issue ?

 

[Rufus’ goofs]

Did they pose an issue ?

At the time I wasn’t very familiar with limpets, so it sure freaked me out at first, but no.
I kept them and they’re still in mine and a friends tank now. They’re not overwhelming. I find them similar to stomatellas.

It was an empty tank with dry rock, water that was mixed earlier that day and then I added the sand. They were crawling on the glass in less than an hour.

 

[rr07]

I got a 5 lbs bag of live sand from caribsea and thought it just had bacteria but I found lots of dead macroalgae and lots of dead clams and scallop shells but I found one LIVING SCALLOP, I literally signed up to to find answers because this shouldn’t be possible, it probably hadn’t eaten anything for months! The scallop looks incredible and shuts closed whenever I knock on the glass of its tank (I made a separate tank for it and im feeding it zooplankton every night)