Live Sand Shelf Life

[crash519]

First, let me congradulate everyone on an excellent forum. I've learned a lot just browsing the post.
My question is the shelf life of live sand. I bought a 58 gal. which the original owner had LS and LR in it when I bought it. He drained the tank and put the LS (approx. 30lb.) in a bucket with some tank water and gave it to me. My question is what now? I may be buying a house very quick so the tank is not going to be set up for a minimum of 30 days. Is the LS going to be worthless? It already smelled terrible when I recieved it. It's not in circulating or heated water. Thoughts anyone?

 

[bang guy]

I'd suggest tossing it out. Sorry.

 

[karajay]

Here's an idea...
If you rinse it, spread it out and dry it, you could still use it as dead sand. You may just need to layer a small amount of new LS on top when you set it up.
Anybody see a problem with this?

 

[petem]

I read that it usually has a shelf life of about 12months.

 

[bang guy]

Real live sand has a shelf life of about 4 days provided it's kept warm.