Live sand.

[tyler1503]

I'm sure this has been asked many times already, so I'm sorry if this is just beating a dead horse.
But is live sand really worth the outrageous price? I see so many people on here using it, but the price tag alone is enough to turn me off the idea.
Do the pros really outweigh the cons THAT much?

 

[brandon429]

rarely are we getting pods and worms it's usually sand and bacteria (because transporting bacteria in anything wet is terribly easy, by design)

Typical live sand beds from matured tanks are stores of waste such that if you stirred them up, a nutrient bloom or a raw ammonia bloom can occur depending on storage conditions

people don't usually sell live sand as it's found in tanks they sell the seeding kits for them separately so we don't get the waste portion typical sandbeds bring, moving waste pockets usually causes lots of mess. Live sand we buy is wet pre cycled sand if that benefit is of use.

It takes about three weeks using fishless cycle and bottle bac to produce what they sell as skip cycled sand.

If the money for wet live sand isnt worth it we can make our own cycled sand in two to three weeks

 

[nervousmonkey]

+1. If cost is the issue, don't buy live. Brandon said it well that you'll get "live sand" naturally in a couple weeks anyway.

 

[tyler1503]

Ah fair enough. Thanks for the input
I was thinking pods and worms and goodies were in the sand, just like live rock. I always wondered how they survived. I guess they don't :/
I'll spend $50 on dry sand instead of $280 on wet sand haha.

 

[Sm51498]

Only way you get all the good critters in live sand other than bacteria is in real live sand pulled straight from the ocean. Only Tampa Bay Saltwater sells it as far as I know. the good news is that even with shipping, TBS is not that much money. look into "the package".

 

[tyler1503]

Only way you get all the good critters in live sand other than bacteria is in real live sand pulled straight from the ocean. Only Tampa Bay Saltwater sells it as far as I know. the good news is that even with shipping, TBS is not that much money. look into "the package".

Thanks for the tip, however I'm Australian so that's not an option for me unfortunately. It's just regular old dry aragonite for me!