live sand question

[Myka]

Imo, all of the "live" bagged sand is a really just a successful marketing scam. You can get the same grain sizes in dry sand which is much cheaper. All sand will cloud your water for some time. "Live" sands will cloud the water for much less time than dry sands will even if you rinse both of them very well. If you use dry sand your tank may be cloudy for a week as the bacteria form a film over the sand grains and weigh them down. This happens faster with the "live" sand just because it has been wet for so much longer. As long as you have live rock, it will very quickly seed the sand and make it live (in "real" terms haha).

[Bugsy]

Thanks Myka for your reply and the others that have replied too. I was wanting to add more sand to my already existing tank that has sand in it and I don't need much so when I seen this 5 lbs it is perfect that is why i was asking. None of the stores here sell dry sand and only AJ's has the big bags of live sand way to much for what I need. So if I were to rinse this stuff really well and add it to my already existing sand and live rock would it be okay??

Hey Mika, did you ever get a new jawfish for your tank??

[Myka]

When adding sand to an existing tank, I would suggest using the "live" bagged sand just because it is less dusty and will cloud your tank for a shorter period of time. This, I believe, is really the only advantage of using "live" bagged sand.

No, I haven't yet, I have a teeny tiny Kole Tang in the there helping with Valonia right now, so the tank is rather full for as long as he's renting space.