Any life in new sand?

[Alberta-newb]

Just curious, I purchased a bag of the Caribsea sugar sized for my new 120 build as a thin (1/2") substrate for the display (I don't like the look of BB). Anyway the bag I purchased was quite moist and I noticed there were bits of organic material mixed in. Is there the possibility of any dormant life in this stuff? I understand it's not reef or beach collected but wondering if there may still be some hitchhikers of some sort. The bag doesn't indicate if there's any cleaning/sterilization before packaging.

Francis:biggrin:

[Aquattro]

No, you're not likely to get any life out of it.

[Black Phantom]

A lot of new sand usually has some other detrious in it as well. Your skimmer will be going nuts for a while getting rid of it. As far as "life" in your sand, sorry but you will have to find another reefer with an established tank to get some of that. I always like to have my tanks cycle before I put anything live in them, including live sand.

[lorenz0]

While on the topic, how bad is it to add this sand with inverts in the tank and live rock?

[danny zubot]

If the sand has waste material in it, it will likely cause an amonia or nitrate spike. I've always found it best to rinse new sand prior to adding it to any system.

[Alberta-newb]

Thanks, Figured as much although I was hoping... What got me wondering was the pond at my parents farm. Usually dries up by mid summer every year for as long as I can remember but every spring it would come back to life with loads of daphnia and shrimp. Two years ago the oil company was recovering a lease site on their property and my father agreed to let them dig out a bunch of this rich soil to use on the condition they dug his pond deeper and in a natural shape. It's about twelve feet deep at one end now and to my surprise small minnows could be seen within the first year. How they got there is anyones guess as the nearest stream is several miles away and the pond is filled by runoff and groundwater.

As for adding this sand, my setup is new with no life..yet. Glad I had nothing else in it as even with a fair bit of rinsing it has left my tank quite cloudy for almost 2 days now.

It has been great for breaking in my skimmer!

[Keri]

I don't think anything other than benificial live bacteria has come from any live sand I've gotten, the really fun stuff comes with the live rock. I wouldn't add any inverts until after your tank is done cycling with the live rock and live sand in it, the LR especially may cause a bit of a spike. Keeping it moist and get it home as Fast as possible will minimize this tho :)
Little tip: learn to recognize what an aiptasia is and don't pick a piece of LR for the "bonus cute little anemones" on it! lol
Good luck :)