Is livesand really alive?

[SaltyMist]

What I mean is, I can understand how the livesand that the local LFS sell is alive since it's in their livesand tank, but the stuff you buy in petsmart, or petco etc. that comes in a bag, is that really alive? What is it's shelf life before it looses it's live properties? I see it's covered in water in the bag, but since it could be on the shelf for months and months with nothing added to it, is it really alive?

 

Thanks,

 

The reason Im thinking about this is because Im setting up 2 more JBJ cube tanks, and it would be more cost effective to buy a 25lb bag of livesand than to buy it by the pound at the lfs. (i.e. 1lb livesand from the LFS tank = $4.00 whereas 25lb bagged livesand = $28.00, just a little over a dollar a lb)

[LITTLEFISHEE]

The manufactured live sand will have an expiration date on the back of the bag. You could save money by getting plain aquarium sand that isn't live and supplementing it with sand from other tanks or buying a pound of sand from your LFS.

[SaltyMist]

I surmise what you are saying is that I should get dead sand and seed it with a cup of livesand from the fish store.

 

What is the aproximate fully seeded timeframe for say, 1cup of live sand ontop of say 7lbs of dead sand?

 

I also read other peoples adventures with their fish stores that they get live sand and it's abo****ely teeming with life, lots of small starfish, etc. Stuff you can see without a scientific microscope. Im wondering if any of that comes in the bagged stuff too, or if it's been so filtered, then only sand and microbes remain?

[jaguilar]

the livesand that comes pre-packaged does not contain all the little critters that you are looking for. instead, it comes full of all the different bacteria that are necessary to get your cycle started. and it does a good job of this, usually cycling a tank with cured live rock in about a week. i used this live sand to cycle my tank, and i still ended up with all these beneficial critters(tiny brittle stars, worms, and pods). they just migrated from my live rock to the sandbed, and now they're all over the place. it's cheaper than buying it by the pound from the lfs, and it works just as good. just my $.02.....