Live sand and the cycling process

[bpitts4]

<p style="text-align:left;">How is live sand any differnt than adding bacteria in a bottle to help with cycling the tank. Just curious! It would seem that if you can add bacteria in a bottle to speed up or even eliminate the cycle process then why not live sand which contains the same bacteria I think.

Your thoughts?

 

[rdnelson]

Many will disagree but I don't think either are live. I have a hard time believing the bacteria stays alive through collection, packaging, warehousing, transport, warehousing again, transport again, sitting on a store shelf..... Well you get my point.


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[tinmanunited]

Anyone have a microscope?

 

[curtismaximus]

Just some basic info about bacteria.

" Bacteria can be found virtually everywhere. They are in the air, the soil, and water, and in and on plants and animals, including us. A single teaspoon of topsoil containsabout a billion bacterial cells (and about 120,000 fungal cellsand some25,000 algalcells).The human mouth is home to more than 500 species of bacteria.

Some bacteria (along with archaea) thrive in the most forbidding, uninviting places on Earth, from nearly-boiling hot springs to super-chilled Antarctic lakes buried under sheets of ice. Microbes that dwell in these extreme habitats are aptly called extremophiles.

Bacteria liveon or in justaboutevery materialand environment on Earth from soilto water to air, and from your house to arctic ice to volcanic vents. Each square centimeter of your skin averages about 100,000 bacteria. A single teaspoon of topsoil contains more than a billion (1,000,000,000) bacteria.

 

[kilralpine]

Alright, take it for what it is but I will give my opinion on all of this. Having used 120 pounds of carribesea "aragonite live sand" on my 75G I can safely say don't waste your money... Alright so they add small critters to the sand by the dozens that become an amazing clean up crew, like months down the road sure but that was about the only benefit I saw from it. It says it is proven to lower nitrates or w/e but what about all that crap in the bag your not sure of you just dumped into the tank? The first few months it saw algae come and go, particularly in the beginning it had an issue with hair algae; I later attribute this to the combination of the "live sand" and some rock I should have sterilized and dried first. Given a few weeks, with the addition of or without bacteria it WILL thrive given the right environment <span style="color: Red">AND TIME</span>, its not something worth paying for. As far as clean up crew goes, you can get those from the addition of someone else's live rock OR if you plan to keep coral you can bring them in as hitchhikers. My suggestion is to begin with as sterile of a tank as you can, from ground up. Clean the tank itself, its parts upon assembly. Use either nuked, rinsed, and sun dried rock or someones credible live rock alongside dry rinsed sand. Probably a fine sand but not so fine it would be a dust storm 24/7, use only RO that you are sure is credible in regards to being 0ppm. This way you know what has been introduced, you can control it, and you save $$. Its probably wise to seed the tank with at least 1 piece of really good live rock to help kickstart bacteria and the smaller clean up crew, worms, snails, stars, ect. Other than that there are a million and one ways to kickstart the cycle in a tank as far as making the ammonia available for the bacteria to start multiplying; The 75 gallon I have now I just threw in a medium sized table shrimp raw and watched it disintegrate over the course of a week or two. I am sure bacteria in a bottle probably works and speeds up the process, but its your wallet paying for it; after all bacteria is FREE.

 

[rdnelson]

Curtismaximus;847377 wrote: Just some basic info about bacteria.

" Bacteria can be found virtually everywhere. They are in the air, the soil, and water, and in and on plants and animals, including us. A single teaspoon of topsoil containsabout a billion bacterial cells (and about 120,000 fungal cellsand some25,000 algalcells).The human mouth is home to more than 500 species of bacteria.

Some bacteria (along with archaea) thrive in the most forbidding, uninviting places on Earth, from nearly-boiling hot springs to super-chilled Antarctic lakes buried under sheets of ice. Microbes that dwell in these extreme habitats are aptly called extremophiles.

Bacteria liveon or in justaboutevery materialand environment on Earth from soilto water to air, and from your house to arctic ice to volcanic vents. Each square centimeter of your skin averages about 100,000 bacteria. A single teaspoon of topsoil contains more than a billion (1,000,000,000) bacteria.

All very true. But all of those are living in the conditions they are suited for. Take sand from the ocean floor and put it in a bag for months under conditions that are not even close to what is normal and I have a hard time believing it will remain alive. But I could be wrong.


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[chefrepo]

"Live Sand"..... don't waste your money. Go bare bottom. But if ya have to have sand get some dead sand, clean well and add a cup or two of established sand from a well established system in order to seed it.

 

[chefrepo]

"Live Sand"..... don't waste your money. Go bare bottom. But if us gotta get some dead sand, clean well and add a cup or two of sand from a well established system in order to seed it.

 

[the curious]

chefrepo;847412 wrote: "Live Sand"..... don't waste your money. Go bare bottom. But if ya have to have sand get some dead sand, clean well and add a cup or two of established sand from a well established system in order to seed it.

+1 Adding just a little bit of live sand from an established system will work wonders for seeding new sand.

 

[markl]

I've always bleached my sand and my rocks. Next step is to rinse with water the I've always just put one raw shrimp in a the tank to start the cycle.

 

[markl]

The only problem with adding live sand from some else's set up is you get what ever problems or pest they may have in their tank.

 

[curtismaximus]

rdnelson99;847408 wrote: All very true. But all of those are living in the conditions they are suited for. Take sand from the ocean floor and put it in a bag for months under conditions that are not even close to what is normal and I have a hard time believing it will remain alive. But I could be wrong.


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Yea after posting all that I guess that didn't really answer the question. :doh:

Don't buy live sand! Buy regular sand and it will become live over time. If you have the option save your money and buy some nice live rock.