Where do you get your sand?

[d-monic]

Hey all! Noob girl again with another quick question,i wanna get a fair amount of live sand for my tank, where do you all get your live sand? Is that stuff they sell in the bags in LFS's worth anything? I see alot of E-bay sellers with sand but i dont know what to look for exactly!
Any info is appreciated,im so happy to have found such an active forum! :joy:
Edit: i do know they have sand for sale on this site,im considering getting some

 

[katz]

I purchased 40# of LS sand from this site and bought 40# of dry sand at PetSmart because it was cheaper than my LFS for the same brand.
Hope that helps.

Katz

 

[gdavies]

Hello, def go for quality, its better to start off right than to have problems down the road. I bought 3/4 of my live sand at my lfs and mixed it with dry sand (it for the most part becomes live sand). I haven't tried any of the auction site stuff, but I would much rater see what i'm getting (free of disease etc.) before I buy. Good luck!

 

[fedukeford]

They have so good and cheap dead sand at the Drs. site, its like $5 for 20 lbs, if you put liverock in the tank it will seed the sand, so it will save you $$$ it will just take a little longer to get live sand

 

[vanos]

I bought 40 lbs. of live sand at *****.

 

[dogstar]

Most of the sand from LFS are fine.
Any sand you use should be aragonite base. It helps to mantain proper alkalinity levels and reduce nutriants such as silicates.
Ordering online, you need to consider shipping as far as total cost.
Seeding dead/dry sand with a little live sand ( 1 bag or scoop from an established tank ) or live rock works too.
I like CaribSea brand but others are good to.

 

[helpme74]

CaribSea brand I got 80lbs from lfs

 

[d-monic]

Originally Posted by helpme74
CaribSea brand I got 80lbs from lfs

Did you get the special grade reef sand or the oolitic agramax sand? I was going to buy the reef sand but the up close picture makes it look like crushed coral and i got scared...its ok though right? :notsure:

 

[bonebrake]

You want to shoot for sugar-sized sand aragonite or oolite.
The CaribSea Aragamax sand is good stuff and with live rock will be live sand quickly.
The benefits of live sand straight from the ocean floor like this site sells, is that it comes with a whole host of beneficial critters that you can see and a lot you can't see. If you're cycling a new tank though you will kill most of them.
:joy:

 

[theappe]

Your best bet for time/money is live sand combined with dry sand. You wanna go with sugar size sand and thats aragonite based. CaribSea makes great sand.

 

[1journeyman]

To make matters more confusing for you regarding "live" sand...

Not all live sand is "live". The packaged stuff sold at your LFS, Deathco, etc. is a joke. It may or may not have some living bacteria in it after being in an enclosed bag for who knows how long... And hoping for some living bacteria is the best you should hope for in a bag of it.
You said you are looking for a lot of sand. How much? Are you wanting a deep sand bed?
Now for the good news... the live sand sold on this site is truly "live". It comes fresh from the ocean floor and will have pods, worms, baby stars, clams, etc. So, buy the cheap stuff and then order some true live sand to go on top of the cheap stuff.

 

[d-monic]

Originally Posted by 1journeyman
To make matters more confusing for you regarding "live" sand...

Not all live sand is "live". The packaged stuff sold at your LFS, Deathco, etc. is a joke. It may or may not have some living bacteria in it after being in an enclosed bag for who knows how long... And hoping for some living bacteria is the best you should hope for in a bag of it.
You said you are looking for a lot of sand. How much? Are you wanting a deep sand bed?
Now for the good news... the live sand sold on this site is truly "live". It comes fresh from the ocean floor and will have pods, worms, baby stars, clams, etc. So, buy the cheap stuff and then order some true live sand to go on top of the cheap stuff.
As for the amount of sand,i just ordered 60 pounds of the caribseas agramax off of the Drs site, but im gonna go up to a local salt water store and see if i can buy a bit of their sand to add in as well My soon to be saltwater tank is a tall 45 gallon. Is 70 pounds or so good enough you think? I dont plan on getting any sand sifting gobies at the moment,a midas blenny is my intended first resident though

Im gong to start the cycling next week,would buying truely live sand right now be a waste in the cycling? *also on a side note,ive heard both to add all your live rock at once or to add bits at a time and i dont know who to believe! Any opinions? *

 

[1journeyman]

There is a sand depth calculator here: Click Here . Use that to figure out how much sand you will need.
You can add all of your live sand and live rock at once since you are going to cycle your tank. Now.. for optimum survival of the life on your rocks, keep a good current going in your tank, protein skim, and watch your ammonia! Do water changes any time it gets near 1ppm (some will argue this... but I emailed Dr. Fenner about this and was told "Yes... we are in confluence here... more than about a (one) ppm becomes too toxic")
Water changes won't hurt your cycle. The bacteria you want will be growing on your rocks and sand. You won't lose a noticeable amount by doing a water change.
Hope that helps!

 

[d-monic]

Originally Posted by 1journeyman
There is a sand depth calculator here: Click Here . Use that to figure out how much sand you will need.
You can add all of your live sand and live rock at once since you are going to cycle your tank. Now.. for optimum survival of the life on your rocks, keep a good current going in your tank, protein skim, and watch your ammonia! Do water changes any time it gets near 1ppm (some will argue this... but I emailed Dr. Fenner about this and was told "Yes... we are in confluence here... more than about a (one) ppm becomes too toxic")
Water changes won't hurt your cycle. The bacteria you want will be growing on your rocks and sand. You won't lose a noticeable amount by doing a water change.
Hope that helps!
Thanks so much for the advice!! ill put all the rock in at once, (im thinking 50-60 pounds) and using that calculator, it looks like ill already have a 3 1/2 inch bed of sand so i think that should be ok Ill get the ammonia test strips ready! Now when you say water changes,do you mean about 10%-ish,or a more massive water change like 25%? Im sorry to be such a noob,im just super excited about starting up my tank, yet i dont wanna rush into things and not do it the right way! :happyfish

 

[1journeyman]

Throw away the test strips, hehe. Buy a good kit like Salifert. Much more accurate!
Water changes... I'd say 20%-25% while cycling. Just make sure water is matching salinity and pH.
Which brings up two more points; get a Refractometer to check salinity and use RO/DI water. Also, many of us "noobs" made the mistake of topping off our tanks (due to evaporation) with salt water. Salt doesn't evaporate though... so we ended up with high salinity. Notice where the top of your water is and top off with fresh RO/DI water in between water changes.
Don't apologize for being a "noob"! I wish I would have found this site years ago when I first tried this hobby....
Also, seriously consider getting a couple of good books for this hobby. That way you're not just taking my word for it. I try to only repeat what I've read but clearly we all make mistakes...