Is Live Sand Necessary?
JaimeAdams
2500 Club Member
I don't know what you mean by "regular substrate". There are plenty of tanks including my own that run bare bottom with no substrate at all.
beaslbob
2500 Club Member
no.
I use play sand from home depot.
No, live sand is not necessary.
Really the only difference between using live sand in a bag and dry sand is time. Once the cycle is complete the beneficial bacteria will have colonized pretty much everything that is submerged in the tank.
Btw you might want to rethink using that sand from Home Depot. It might work, but using Aragonite sand you can find at your LFS or online would be a much better option IMO.
https://www.marinedepot.com/search?Query=dry+sand
Really the only difference between using live sand in a bag and dry sand is time. Once the cycle is complete the beneficial bacteria will have colonized pretty much everything that is submerged in the tank.
Btw you might want to rethink using that sand from Home Depot. It might work, but using Aragonite sand you can find at your LFS or online would be a much better option IMO.
https://www.marinedepot.com/search?Query=dry+sand
My take on the matter is as long as you select a substrate that doesn't degrade in seawater and keep it as clean as any other substrate it'll work just fine
Given seawater appropriate substrate the reason so many different people have varying choices is due to waste retention characters or physical preferences so the substrate doesn't get blown around the tank.
in many cases so if you just keep it clean all the time it doesn't matter
Having no substrate at all works just fine we can see from other tanks and knowing that detail is why I rinse my own substrate in tap water to keep it perfectly clean and it doesn't matter if it removes bacteria or not we didn't need them. With a large tank id not use one. Work. Coral plate the bottom and include open spaces coralline w eventually adhere.
Given seawater appropriate substrate the reason so many different people have varying choices is due to waste retention characters or physical preferences so the substrate doesn't get blown around the tank.
in many cases so if you just keep it clean all the time it doesn't matter
Having no substrate at all works just fine we can see from other tanks and knowing that detail is why I rinse my own substrate in tap water to keep it perfectly clean and it doesn't matter if it removes bacteria or not we didn't need them. With a large tank id not use one. Work. Coral plate the bottom and include open spaces coralline w eventually adhere.
Last edited:
john.m.cole3
cyclOps
Live sand is not worth it to me since I rinse all substrate before adding to my tank. THis cuts down on silt in the tank which makes accessing your sandbed a sand cloud of a mess wehen attempting to do so. @brandon429 has a good thread about rinsing live sand or sand in general rather.
One caveat I'd add is that if you want a deep sand bed (>3") you DO need some critters to stir it and live sand really helps get that going. If you are just using a thin layer (<1") then it doesn't really matter
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