Turning playsand to livesand......Can i do it?

[fishtails]

O.k. everyone I have a question or two.I am going to purchase some playsand to add to my tank(changing from cc to dsb)but I really don't have the money right now to buy ls so I was wondering IF I could make the playsand live.Here's what I was thinking ut the playsand in a bucket and stir it until water is clear and then put some water from the tank in there with a piece of lr.First of all will it make my playsand live?Will my lr die?How long will it take(thinking about leaving in bucket for a wk.)Any more ques. that I would need answered.Alex

 

[salty rick]

Your LR in your tank will eventually make you sand live over a period of time. I see no need to put a piece of LR with the sand in a bucket for a period of time. This would probably kill the piece of LR. Another alternative would be to see if a friend with a reef and a DSB would give you some of the live sand to put in your tank. Others have purchased small rubble pieces of LR from the LFS to help seed the sand. Finally, there are kits that you can buy that have the critters that is needed to make LS.

 

[wrassecal]

I took the cc that I was changing out and put it in panyhose balls about the size of a baseball and placed them on my new dsb. I left them in a week so the established critters bacteria etc could seed the ls. Then start taking them out one evry other day. I also am one who has gotten some rubble from lfs. Looks a little goofy but best way to get your sand "live" w/o spending more money. I did use 20lbs of the bagged live sand on top of the playsand for the bacteria it provided.
click on house above to see my tank pics.

 

[dinhouse]

"fishtails" It is not a real scientfic process form what I have read. As long as you have some decent live rock in your tank it will be fine. WHen I switched over I just got a cupful of live sand from a friend of mine. That with my live rock turned my playsnad into live sand in no time. It doesn't take very long for the sand critters to reproduce.

 

[saltyrich]

Absolutely! It is an easy process. Your lfs should sell you some rubble and a cup or so of the substrate from there curing tanks etc. This will speed up the process.