live sand question needed answered

[gypsyvybz14]

Hello everyone,

I am new to this hobby and I was going to start a salt water coral tank and eventually get fish. But for starters I needed to just get the aquarium set up and cycled before I start. I would like some questions answered and I know this is the right site for that. The first question I have is about my live sand.

I bought Original Grade Ocean Direct Live Reef Sand
I bought it a little too soon. But When I kept it stored somehow a hole was made at the back of the bag. This sand is normally wet and h moisture in the bag. When I went to move it I noticed the bag was dried out.

Is this ok to still use? I was going to put in my aquarium to start cycling and get it perfect flow and aqua-scape before adding my coral. Would this effect my benefits of the live sand? would anything come back to life>? would it matter if I am going to have live rock anyway.?

Thanks for the feed back

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Hello everyone,

I am new to this hobby and I was going to start a salt water coral tank and eventually get fish. But for starters I needed to just get the aquarium set up and cycled before I start. I would like some questions answered and I know this is the right site for that. The first question I have is about my live sand.

I bought Original Grade Ocean Direct Live Reef Sand
I bought it a little too soon. But When I kept it stored somehow a hole was made at the back of the bag. This sand is normally wet and h moisture in the bag. When I went to move it I noticed the bag was dried out.

Is this ok to still use? I was going to put in my aquarium to start cycling and get it perfect flow and aqua-scape before adding my coral. Would this effect my benefits of the live sand? would anything come back to life>? would it matter if I am going to have live rock anyway.?

Thanks for the feed back

The bacteria in the live sand probably died if it dried out bit live rock is much more important. They to get live ocean collected rock if possible.

 

[LeftyReefer]

Yes, its perfectly fine to use. Bagged live sand is some slick marketing.

If there was anything alive in that sand, what do you think happened once they sealed the bag up?

Those bags get loaded on a hot truck and shipped to an LFS where it sits for a long time. Anything that was alive in that sand is long gone by the time you get it home. heat and a lack of oxygen will kill most of the bacteria in the sand.

Unless it was bagged from the ocean and shipped pretty quickly, its just wet dry sand.

 

[fishface NJ]

Live sand is a gimmick. @LeftyReefer is correct. You would need to rinse it whether live or dry to get the slit out of it

 

[Dburr1014]

Rinse with tap water until it runs clear. Better to do portions cuz it takes a while.
Once you think it's clear, do it again cuz it's not. LOL.
Final rinse in rodi.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Well it wouldn't hurt to rinse the sand although I've never found a need to do it

 

[Dburr1014]

Well it wouldn't hurt to rinse the sand although I've never found a need to do it

Everything died, I wouldn't want that in my tank to start it off.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Everything died, I wouldn't want that in my tank to start it off.

I'm glad I haven't used that particular brand then...other brands actually don't contain toxins (or at least the brands I've used) or do you just mean all the bacteria died?

 

[Dburr1014]

I'm glad I haven't used that particular brand then...other brands actually don't contain toxins (or at least the brands I've used) or do you just mean all the bacteria died?

Yes whatever that was in the bag is dead, it all dried out. Bacteria and any life. Why not rinse it all clean? Even the tiniest particles of sand should be washed away. That's only going to trap detritus and Cloud the water on start up.