Live Sand swap?

[SteveW]

I've read in a number of places a great way to increase the biodiversity of your reef would be to swap a cup or so of live sand with other hobbyists.

What do people think of meeting at a local fish store like Big Al's (I live in Richmond) and swap a cup of sand? Doing this a few times with different people over time would probably make for an interesting experiment!

Each person doing so should do so responsibly: ie not participate unless their system is currently disease free.

What do people think? Any takers?

- Steve

[Jack]

Watch out for flatworms :wink:

[Aquattro]

Watch out for flatworms :wink:

..and other stuff...

[SteveW]

Would it be safer to add the new sand to the refugium? Or, even put it into a quarantine tank for a few weeks but regardless I'd imagine it's hard to sift through it for bad stuff.

How do others add live sand? Mine is colonicaed from the live rock, but since I'm not planning to cure and add more LR, I'm looking at other ways of increasing good tiny critters!

[Aquattro]

Anytime I get some sand, I do actually go thru it and pick out the critters one by one. If you can get a dozen of any type, they should multiply on their own. It's fine to add live sand, but get it from people you know, not people you meet at the LFS. Get to know members here and see what their tanks are like. Also see if they have critters you don't.