Live Sand - Best place to buy online

[WhiteCloud]

I am currently cycling my 90 Gallon with 200lbs of Argaramax Sugar Sized and 60 lbs of Dry Base Rock from Reeferrocks.com. I have 3 shrimp in there as my source of ammonia.

I am thinking about actually buying Live Sand. I know that the sand will become live over time, but I really want a good variety of organisms in the sandbed.

I was going to buy some Live Sand from Tampabaysaltwater.com to seed my sandbed when I ordered my Live Rock from them. After looking at pictures of people who have used it...the sand was very dark and had very large grain sizes. It looks like it would really make the 2 layers of sand look a bit off in the tank.

Has anyone ordered some Live Sand that was lighter and whiter, fine grain size, yet still was full of "goodies".

Thanks!

Steve

 

[theedudenator]

I bought some live sand from the 2 major sellers off ebay.
They sand was exactly the same - probably the same source

It was the larger grainy type...

but it seemed "fresh" to me.

 

[Charlie]

Why not just buy a couple of cups of ls from the lfs and put it on top of your regular (not alive) substrate?

I bought ls by the bag but often wonder just how "alive" anything in that bag was. It sits on dealers shelves for looong periods of time with no oxygen or light. LIVE

 

[Devilishturtles]

I bought a bag of live sand to go on top of my regular aragonite sand. It was the caribsea brand. I got lots of goodies in it. I didn't have a problem with it being "dead" in the bag and such. There is a shelf date on the back of each bag. USUALLY, this date should be no older than 3 months out (atleast, that's the most I saw when I was shopping around). It really helped cycle my tank too.

It might be cheaper to just buy it in your LFS. Otherwise, I have never ordered ls online.

 

[roka64]

There is a shelf date on the back of each bag.

You know, I never noticed that! LOL!
Keep in mind, the smaller grains will eventaully sink below the larger grains.

 

[melosu58]

I bought the sand that DT was talking about. I just bought a bag of LS and put it over the couple bags of dry sand.

 

[Charlie]

I bought the same live sand too, but was always skeptical about what actually lives in there despite the expiration date.

 

[theedudenator]

I found the live sand online to be about 1/2 the price as my LFS.

I bought all of mine online

 

[two11devan]

Im in the market for buying LS also. I did the bag stuff once and wasn't really happy with it. It seemed to do alright but it didn't appear to come with any "goodies". Anyone use Liveaquaria.com or any other similar sources? Is the bagged stuff just as good as the other stuff out there? I was looking at the Caribsea Arag-alive sand (Fiji pink) and for $27 for a 20lb bag it looks like a much better deal than the sand at liveaquaria which is around $75 for a 20lb box.