Glenn Posted August 4, 2002 Share Posted August 4, 2002 Is live sand the same as aragonite sand? I know that aragonite sand help pH and adds calcium to the tank but does it also contain living creatures? I was just on CaribSea Inc. web site and all I could find was aragonite sand and they said nothing about anything living in it. Any help would be apreciated. Link to comment
Foogoo Posted August 4, 2002 Share Posted August 4, 2002 If it's just argonite sand then it's probably just that: sand. I do remember this one sand they sell however that is sold in a sealed bag w/ water that is supposed to contain living bacteria. Link to comment
MKramer Posted August 5, 2002 Share Posted August 5, 2002 You're probably thinking of CaribSea's Arag-a-live. Aragonite sand just refers to sand whose primary make-up is aragonite (excellent pH buffering agent). It can be sold dry, or live. But live sand doesn't necessary have to be aragonite. In fact, pacific live sand most often is not, if I understand correctly. Link to comment
Jefe12234 Posted August 5, 2002 Share Posted August 5, 2002 Aragonite is a mineral that makes up most tropical sand. If the sand you are looking at makes no mention of life, then it's probably just dry aragonite sand. All live sand that I have seen or heard of is aragonite. This makes sense because aragonite sand is found in tropical waters, while silica sand is found in temperate waters. If you want live sand, buy some "real" live sand from an LFS or MO place. Don't get the packaged live sand. There's no animals in it. -Chris Link to comment
Sahin Posted August 5, 2002 Share Posted August 5, 2002 The others explained about the technical stuff, I just wanted to add this: If you want live sand then the best stuff to get is that out of an established tank, a friends tank for example, or get some from the LFS. The "live" sand that comes packed in a watertight bag contains only "live" bacteria. Just how much is "live" depends on how long the bags been sitting on the shelf. Most of this stuff have only 6months shelf life from the day it was packed. Not worth it. Doesnt contains any critters such as worms/brittle stars etc. Just buy the ordinary dead sand and seed it with a sample from the LFS or other source. Your live rock will seed it anyway. Its only been about 2.5months and lots of critter/worms can be seen living in my live sand. Hope this helps. Link to comment
Strife Posted August 5, 2002 Share Posted August 5, 2002 its called live sand because it has live organism's living in the sand... so you can have any sand you want..aragonite, beach sand, southdown sand from home depot, etc... and call it live sand once its established in a reef tank. and that goes with live rock too...you can make your own live rock out of cement, and call it live rock when you start to see organisms living in it.. Link to comment
tyoberg Posted August 6, 2002 Share Posted August 6, 2002 FWIW, the buffering ability of araginite sand sitting at the bottom of the tank is very low--it's a bit of a stretch to call it an advantage. In my 37 gallon tank, I have to supplement calcium and alkalinity--at least 5 times (and probably more like 50 times) as much as the sandbed provides just to keep them stable at 400ppm and 3.0 meq/l Ty Link to comment
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