live sand
- Thread starter angel
- Start date
I wouldn't advise this. You will be adding things you dont want in your tank. Just do yourself the favor and buy it.
Now if you go that route, you will have surprises, (both good and bad) that you wouldn't have had with clean sand. You can and most likely will run your cycle time down to just a few days which is a great improvement. of course you may also get crazy diatom blooms, infestations of worms and other critters as well.
The question though is can it work? and the only responsible answer is: sure, if you are willing to accept the consequences. If you want a carefully constructed tank with extremely delicate inhabitants I wouldn't use it. If you just want a happy little salt tank with the usual hardy suspects, it should be just fine.
I would stay away from using sand from the beach or ocean. Most live sands sold in stores are actually manufactured sands, made of calcium carbonate (dead coral). Most sands from the coastline have really high concentrations of silicates, which has it's own drawbacks. That and as others have said, you don't know what else you are getting. I would not even consider putting it in my reef tanks.
