Live Sand ?

[Mr.First]

Is there a place to purchase real live sand, rather than off the LFS shelf ?

 

[nsiegel5]

Perhaps Im being a bit naive but I dont understand why you are looking to do this??? It seems simplest to me to go down to the lfs and purchase sand, considering how heavy it is I doubt shipping would be a cost effective method. Still I think Im lacking the understanding of what you are trying to ask here

 

[Tonyscoots84]

Perhaps Im being a bit naive but I dont understand why you are looking to do this??? It seems simplest to me to go down to the lfs and purchase sand, considering how heavy it is I doubt shipping would be a cost effective method. Still I think Im lacking the understanding of what you are trying to ask here

if you read what he wrote hes asking what other options does he have available to purchase live sand instead of the ones that come in a bag from the Local Fish Store...

you have a couple of options one being you can order the live sand from many online sites that sell live rock as well... most of the time they carry both...

your other option would be the cheapest... get a reg. bag of sand such as aragonite sand from your LFS and seed it with live sand from a fellow reefers tank... all you would need is a cup or so of the reefers sand to establish your sand.... but the choice is up to u... me personally i wouldnt waste the money on the live sand stuff if you can make ur own live sand within time... .....

 

[Mr.First]

I am wondering, if sand sits too long on a shelf, and who knows how much longer in a bag , in a warehouse, on a truck ect,ect. how can it still be actually "Live". With all the sites selling Live Rock and the site selling pods, I was wondering what options I had to buying REALLY live sand.

Setting up a new tank, planning on some Pipes,Manderin, Twin Spot Gobies. By the way, will they get along? Twin Spots and Manderine? Any guesses ??
Thx,,

 

[reefman]

live sand from LFS is a bit overrated. it really isnt live like sand from an established reef tank. it doesnt have diff diverse of life like worms,pods,etc. it does contain nitrifying bateria so it is better than dead dry sand. i find the best way to have live sand is the either culture your own by using good live rocks n time. evenually the sand be be culturated with the life forms from the rocks. seeding sand from an established sandbed will increase this process.

 

[nycmat]

why not just get good live rock and if sand is a must i would ask house about there esv ultra fine grain sand its the best i have ever seen

 

[DonCisco]

I read your choice of fish, and I have to advice strongly against putting a Mandarin in a new tank. Most fish will eat their fill when there is available food ie. at feeding time, Mandarins on the other hand need a diet of live copepods and they eat them constantly. You won't have a nice 'pod population in a new tank, so I would recommend getting a mandarin when your tanks is like a year old, and definitely NOT if you have a small tank (less than 75G). Otherwise you will starve your mandarin to death. I myself had a Mandarin (Chin Chin) for about 4 months in a new 12 gallon nano, and I had to teach him how to eat mysis shrimp and cyclopeeze. So reconsider the mandarin, at least until you have a well established reef with plenty of copepods. And check what the others eat, if you add a wrasse then they will compete for the same copepod population. Best of luck

 

[masterswimmer]

why not just get good live rock and if sand is a must i would ask house about there esv ultra fine grain sand its the best i have ever seen

Thank you Matt. We're actually talking about it already.

Russ

 

[daisy]

I have read that fish that look very similar are often not a good idea to have in the same tank -- but the best idea might be to look at a compatibility chart. There are fish compatibility charts in many swf books - you can find them at any book store!

And as far as the mandarins go, ditto on the "don't buy till your pod population is huge." I have heard so many stories of mandarins starving to death. If you get a small one, you may have some luck teaching him to eat something other than pods, but when you see them in nature, you see that all they do is forage for pods and eat.

Best advice I ever got on stocking my tank was to by a good book (anything by Bob Fenner, for example) and do a lot of reading before making a purchase. Bob Fenner is really into teaching you about the fish, where they live, what they eat - and then he tells you about how they fare in captivity. If they have a low survival rate, you probably don't want to buy them!!!

Good luck!!!

 

[daisy]

try garf.com - they are a reef research group, and i believe they sell LS from their established systems. i like supporting them because they are all about reef survival and captive coral farming. I bought LS from them (it was more like muck, actually) and it was full of all kinds of animals I could see, in addition to what I'm sure was tons of stuff I could not see. There were tiny star fish and all kinds of worms and stuff!!! check them out!