Live Sand: judging a sketchy delivery

[owenz]

I ordered some interesting looking live sand off Ebay on Wednesay (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7722267694&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWN:IT&rd=1). The seller sent it Priority Mail that day. Unsurprisingly, the USPS screwed the shipment up, updating the tracking record to say they had attempted to drop the package off on Saturday, when in fact it had ripped open and began leaking at the Post Office. When I called to figure out what happened, the box had ended up in the "quarantined" box.

Anyway, to make a long story short, the package arrives tonight. It's been 4 days since shipment, the bag was apparently ripped open (but is not now leaking), and I have no clue what to expect.

Is it safe to assume that a batch of live sand will smell pretty bad if it's gotten rotten? Anything else to look out for? Or should I just trash it? Obviously I will do so if it's dried out, but I'm wondering how to evaluate the sand if it's not dried out or extremely smelly...

 

[scifi_3d_zoo]

Well... those bags have long shelf-life. I have no idea how much is actually "alive" even in an un-ripped bag. But I would say some % of the live sand has been compromised but it's probably not all a loss. Depends on how bad the situation is. But I wouldn't think of this as something like a bag of snails or crabs, etc. I think the live sand can tolerate a lot more and still be quite usable. I guess you live somewhere that you can't just go buy some live sand?? I hate to see people order stuff like that on the net and pay for shipping... and then get busted up crap delivered.

 

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't put someones old sandbed in my tank. Just my opinion.
I'd use a couple of cups of live sand, but use mostly new sand that wasn't filled with however many years of detritus, just my opinion.

 

[Anonymous]

Dry = toss it
smelly = toss it.

A bag of live sand should do fine for 4 days as long as it didn't get too cold and had plenty of air in the bag.

 

[cjsrch]

if you wanna return it it is the shippers problom to pay for a new item and ship it to you

the insurance thing is really dumb because insurance is FOR THE SHIPPER not the reciever.
if the you decided to not pay for insurance and the shipper didnt pay either that is his problom not yours any danmages that happen are the shippers problom untill the item is safe in your hands.

get your money back and get some southdown and a scoop of sand form a friend

( source is my father who worked in shipping/service at a microscope company shipping orders taht were somtimes well over 100000 $ ....... had to add that since i know some one would ask where i heard it)

 

[owenz]

Ok, it showed up last night. It was damp and had a mild "low tide" smell, but I dropped it into a bucket of mixed water with an airstone, mixed it up hard, and the water quickly cleared. No smell it all after an hour.

So the consensus is use only a cup or two, if at all?

 

[Anonymous]

I'd use it all if it didn't smell of Sulphur dioxide.

 

[owenz]

I'd use it all if it didn't smell of Sulphur dioxide.

Based on the circumstances the seller advised me to use it slowly, in small amounts (about a cup a day), just to be safe. He also recommended that I sift it well to get any detritus off.

The tank is cycled, so it should be able to handle a modest nitrate spike like this...right?

 

[Anonymous]

It's Ammonia I'd be concerned with. Test the water in the bucket of sand. If Ammonia is low then adding the sand isn't goin to cause a spike.

If it were me and I wasn't going to use all the sand right away I'd put it in a shallow container with heat and circulation.

 

[owenz]

If it were me and I wasn't going to use all the sand right away I'd put it in a shallow container with heat and circulation.

That's exactly what I've done. I figured I'd let it sit and settle for a while. I'll check the ammonia tonight before adding any to the tank. Like everything else in this hobby, nothing good ever happens quickly.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Anonymous]

Sounds more like all I did was just confirmed what you had already planned.