What to expect with true live sand?

[Spare time]

I am helping someone setup a tank and we are interested in going with dry rock and potentially using authentic live sand (likely mixed with dry). I've been looking at things like live rock n reef sand, arc (if they get back in stock), and similar. I am interested in using this for his tank as many of the unwanted hitchhikers I highly dislike (vermatids, mantis (i like these but only when I add them), bubble algae, flatworms, etc.) live on rocks. However I don't know what comes with the this sand. I'm looking to avoid bristle worms, fireworms, and such. What all have you found in real live sand?

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

expect silt, lots and lots of it. and the grain size varies greatly. What i hate most about it is the very fine silt .... So i ditched the live sand and went with ocean direct caribsea live sand instead.

Now the maricultured live rocks. Those are fantastic!

 

[HuduVudu]

Anything but what is in the ocean, that is what I expect from my life sand. (sic)

 

[Spare time]

expect silt, lots and lots of it. and the grain size varies greatly. What i hate most about it is the very fine silt .... So i ditched the live sand and went with ocean direct caribsea live sand instead.

Now the maricultured live rocks. Those are fantastic!

I used ocean direct in my current tank. I think next time if I use this sand I'll siphoned out the smaller particulars but otherwise I do like ocean direct

 

[Spare time]

Anything but what is in the ocean, that is what I expect from my life sand. (sic)

Are you referring to packaged live sand or actual live sand?

 

[HuduVudu]

Are you referring to packaged live sand or actual live sand?

Aren't they the same?

 

[Spare time]

Aren't they the same?

No. You can buy real live sand from oceans and aquacultured live sand, which is what i refer to as true live sand. Most bagged lived sand that people use (i.e. carbide sea non ocean direct) is just sand with freshwater bacteria added

 

[AlexG]

If you get genuine live sand that is collected from the ocean and not just bagged sand with bacteria I can offer some expectations. I purchased live sand from the Gulf of Mexico for my last system and I plan to get more of this sand for my new system once the display is close to being ready to go online. Grain size can vary greatly with lots of shells. The main benefit I was looking for was biodiversity of bacteria and microfauna. After a few weeks the 60lbs of live sand I added to the 400lbs of dry sand showed some signs of life starting to spread throughout the tank. I did not wash or stir up the live sand heavily. I simply put the sand in the tank with the bag it came in and gently dumped and spread the sand around to avoid stirring up lots of silt. I took several samples under the microscope which did not show lots of life initially but after a few months every teaspoon of sand was loaded with microfauna.

 

[SlugSnorter]

Aren't they the same?

no. bagged live sand is basically the same as liferock

 

[HuduVudu]

Ok guys ... please look up:
(sic)

 

[SlugSnorter]

No. You can buy real live sand from oceans and aquacultured live sand, which is what i refer to as true live sand. Most bagged lived sand that people use (i.e. carbide sea non ocean direct) is just sand with freshwater bacteria added

pretty sure ocean direct isn't the best. I do like the aqua-cultured and harvested stuff

 

[jda]

Real live sand can be awesome, but I have no idea where to order it anymore. Just a cup from a local can probably get you all that you need. Worms, bacteria and some pods. Dry sand can be seeded very quickly, IMO and is faster than dry rock since the sand is not packed with dead organics and phosphate.

 

[SlugSnorter]

Real live sand can be awesome, but I have no idea where to order it anymore. Just a cup from a local can probably get you all that you need. Worms, bacteria and some pods. Dry sand can be seeded very quickly, IMO and is faster than dry rock since the sand is not packed with dead organics and phosphate.

I know florida pets and TBS sells some

 

[Spare time]

pretty sure ocean direct isn't the best. I do like the aqua-cultured and harvested stuff

Ocean direct appears better than the others by carib sea in the sense that they don't dry and sift it like they do with the others. How much is in it I have no clue

 

[Spare time]

Real live sand can be awesome, but I have no idea where to order it anymore. Just a cup from a local can probably get you all that you need. Worms, bacteria and some pods. Dry sand can be seeded very quickly, IMO and is faster than dry rock since the sand is not packed with dead organics and phosphate.

I'm curious what kinds of worms and others critters people have foun and if they have found anything undesirable. To be it seems like a great way to add some "live" to a tank without the associated pests or unwanted hitchikers of live rock. I may set up a small 2 gallon using the real live sand to see what all it comes with

 

[Soren]

I recently ordered 25lbs from Gulf Live Rock along with 75lbs ocean-direct live rock.
They were both added to an empty running 90-gallon tank for observation.
Other than interesting shapes and grain sizes as well as many tiny "rocks" covered in coralline, I am not sure how much life was added through the sand directly. It was still worth it to me, but the live rock seems to be the more important consideration, in my opinion.

Edit: There was a lot of silt in the sand and I did not rinse the sand before adding to my live-rock-culture tank. I do plan to clean it before adding to other tanks if I do move some of this sand to my QT's or displays in the future rather than just leaving all of the live sand in the live-rock-culture tank.

 

[Reef.]

Getting a cup of sand from a friends mature tank would be a good option too.

 

[HuduVudu]

If you need live sand let me know I will go get some for you.

 

[juarec0201]

Does anyone know where oceans direct is sourced from? Couldn’t find info on their we site

 

[WheatToast]

Here is what came on my order of live sand from Gulf Live Rock:

Macro animal life:

- Brittle starfish
- Cerith snails
- Mithrax crabs (deceased)
- Tunicate

Empty shells:
- Cerith snails
- Turkey wing clams
- Reddish oyster
- Sea urchin spines
- Smooth clam shells
- Coral rubble

Macroalgae:
- Halimeda
- Botryocladia
- Penicillus dumetosus (only a few filaments)
- Coralline algae “nuggets” (solid masses of Coralline)

Other:
- Two, small rubble pieces of Gulf Live Rock

Gulf Live Sand:

Close up (Gulf Live Sand is the top layer; notice the oolitic grains):

Coralline nugget:

Botryocladia and the Gulf Live Sand, fresh out of the bag:

Rubble and shells:

Halimeda:

Brittle starfish:

Cerith snail:

One of the two larger rubble pieces (center):