live sand

[invert]

This is my first post and I would like to start by saying hi to everyone.

 

Right he we go then. I’m just starting to plan my first nano reef and I was wondering what would be best for a 2.5 gal tank. I’m trying to find out if store brought live sand would be better than sand from an established reef tank.

 

I would think that the store stuff would have more in it as there are no fish or inverts killing it of. But this may not be true. Also how would you clean up the sand from a tank before you put it into a nano.

 

So if anyone can help I would be very grateful.

[Satchmo]

Hi, welcome to the party.  Do you mean the pre-packaged, sealed bags of live sand?  Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that while this sand is seeded with bacteria, it lacks the critters you'd get if you used sand from an existing system.  You can get playsand from any landscape store (very cheap), and seed it with a scoop of sand from another tank.

 

A lot of folks (myself included) use Southdown sand from Home Depot, but it isn't easy to find outside the east coast.  As for cleaning it, you could rinse it in a bucket of freshwater to eliminate some of the silt.  However, I just added my Southdown right from the bag without problems.

[jdiver]

Welcome to the site! Be warned that this is an addictive hobby.

 

If you can get your sand from an established reef tank, then that would be best since it will already be loaded with all of the good bacteria and critters. In a 2.5 gallon tank you won't need much sand, maybe 4-5 lbs depending on the dimensions of the tank. I recently set up two 7 gallon nanos and used about 10 lbs of dead sand and seeded it with a cup or two of sand from my more established nano, and the critters and the good "bugs" have multiplied pretty quickly.

 

I would be wary of using some play sands. Many, many people will recommend Southdown sand, so I'm assuming that is ok to use. I tried using another play sand from HD (they didn't have Southdown) for a brackish tank and it was unbelievably loaded with silt, depsite repeated rinsings beforehand. Although it's more expensive, since it's such a small tank I would recommend spending an extra bit of money and buying a 5lb bag of sand from your lfs. Any play sand I have seen comes in 50 lb bags anyway, which needless to say would be overkill for a 2.5 gallon tank.

 

Also, when you buy your live rock, try to get your lfs to sell you pieces out of their fish and invert tanks, rather than just in the lr tanks. I have gotten some awesome pieces that way, and the bonus is that they are cycled and come with lots of good (hopefully) hitchhikers.

[lizbeth]

Welcome!

 

The first thing I'd suggest is starting with a bigger tank. I started with a 5.5 and belive me I've "outgrown it " in 2 months. Small tanks are very interesting but very high maintanance and there isn't any room for things to grow. If I was to start all over agian I'd get a 7 bowfront, more room, very cool looking, and easier to aquascape.

 

I went with quartz based sand in the 5.5 and it's ok. I went with Southdown in the 20 I'm setting up. I like the Southdown. Against recomedations I rinsed it first because the water was very brown muddy looking, I'm very glad I did.

 

The bagged wet "livesand" is supposed to have Live bacteria in it to help start the cycle in the tank though I think that is questionable. The best live sand comes from someone else established tank.

[bdmiller]

This is a good question as I was going to ask something similar to this. I don't know anyone who has an existing tank. Can I buy established live sand from my lfs? I'm putting together a 10 gallon. Can I use all live sand or must I buy southdown and seed it with live?

 

Thanks

[Metznreef]

there is nothing wrong with using all live sand bdmiller, as a matter of fact, it would be better for the tank.

[mysk]

I use live sand from the lfs they are nice and give mee a good deal for a couple of scoops

[My Alife 7]

Since it's going to be a 2.5 gallon tank, I'd probably go with live sand from an established reef tank at a LFS. The cost would be minimal since you wont be purchasing a ton of sand and it should be packed full of nice little critters.

[invert]

Thanks allot to everyone who has helped.

 

I’m going to use half from my mums 160gal reef tank and half from shop brought packaged sand this way I will get the benefits of both. The reason for still getting packaged sand is that when we used it on our 160 there were thousands of little creatures in it until we got some fish.