Live sand to an established tank

[markc]

What will be the effect of adding live sand to an established tank?
I have been told that it may reduce the oxygen in the tank if so would it be a good idea to pump more oxygen into the water?

 

[Len]

marc,

Adding live sand to an established tank may reduce oxygen level because of the die-off of organisms in the newly introduced live sand. During this time, just make sure you have a good deal of water current (particulary @ the water's surface) and keep the skimmer working at all times. You should experience little to no negative effects.

If you already have an established sand bed, I recommend just adding "dead" aragonite sand. Live sand doesn't hurt, but it's costly and inefficient. Your current substrate community will quickly overcome the new live components of the live sand, rendering no better then if you had just added "dead" sand.

 

[Anonymous]

I think he'd at least have a more diverse sand bed. I added LS to an established tank (20lbs to a 20 gal tank) and didn't have any chemistry problems, though things did get cloudy.

I would have mixed saltwater on hand in case you do get a chemistry spike.

Ty

 

[Len]

Introduction of live sand into an established sand bed is unlikely to introduce species diversification unless huge amounts of it is used or if the current sandbed is relatively monospecific.

Supposing a healthy sand bed already exists, almost every biological niche will be filled. Introducing new sand (and consequently, new species) will have little effect on the established substrate bed because the current community will outcompete and quickly starve out the new species introduced (weakened by rigors of shipping). That is, unless some of the new species are very hardy and/or <gasp> invasive.

 

[Anonymous]

Leonard-
Would it be worthwhile to add a detrivore kit (is that a huge amount)?

If a sandbed is seeded essential from LR alone, I would think that there would be significant biological niches that haven't already been fully exploited. What do you think?

Just picking your brain.

Ty

 

[Len]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by tyoberg:
<STRONG>Leonard-
Would it be worthwhile to add a detrivore kit (is that a huge amount)?

If a sandbed is seeded essential from LR alone, I would think that there would be significant biological niches that haven't already been fully exploited. What do you think?
</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

In this scenario, I think a good deal of benefit can be derived from introduction of detrivore kits/live sand. My previous statements were far too blanket; my apologies.

 

[davelin315]

Just a guess, but after a certain amount of time, I would think that the creatures in your substrate would not necessarily even out, but would end up achieving a balance based on which creatures were more adaptable to a fixed environment such as your tank. The biodiversity, I would think, would increase to a point, plateau, and then would drop off as some species outcompeted others. For example, in my substrate (I don't have a DSB and have been thinking of adding a few scoops of live sand to diversify, by the way, who's got good stuff out there?), the presence of some creatures I used to see has gone down, and now the most visible (very visible, it looks like a carpet) inhabitants are spaghetti worms. There are still numerous copepods and amphipods present in the tank, bristleworms, etc. as well, but it seems like the spaghetti worms have established themselves as the most dominant presence in the substrate. In this respect (if my conjecture is valid) I would think that the addition of new live sand would be a bonus on a periodic, but consistent basis.