Adding New Sand to a tank

[kengaroo]

I started my 46 gallon tank is 7 weeks ago. I put in 40lbs of live sand at startup. I am thinking of adding a little more sand into my tank. Should I add another 20lbs of live sand or should I get the regular aragonite sand? I have 3 fishes and a bunch of snails and hermit crabs in the tank. Should I mix the sand or should I put in on top of my existing sand. I know mixing it would cloud the water, but I am afraid it might hurt my fishes. Any suggestions/

 

[fishmamma]

I wouldn't think you need to add live sand and I wouldn't disturb the sand bed. Not too sure off how much you should add to the top though, I have always seeded with a couple pounds of live sand from LFS laid right on top. Hopefully you will get some more input on this.

 

[jdragunas]

how deep is your sandbed? you may not even need to add sand. you can just put the sand right on top of it, no problem, and there's no need to mix it up. If you're afraid of smothering the "liveness" on the sand, don't be. The living organisms live throughout the entire sandbed, not just on top, so placing "dead" sand on top will not kill anything (as long as you only place about 1" or so...)