Buying live sand vs making live sand

[mhart032]

I'm starting to setup my 40g hex and I found a guy that is selling live sand. Would this be a better option vs making it.
Matt

 

[thincat]

Buy enough live sand to seed your tank. Fill the rest with regular aragonite sand to the depth that you want. At least 4" or deeper for a DSB or any depth for a regular sandy bottom. any more then that is a waste of money.

 

[roka64]

Is he selling live sand from his own tank?
If so ask what kind of meds he's used in that tank.
If he is selling the bags, I would skip it and let the sand cycle with your new tank, it will become "live" that way.
I used 130LBs of dry sand in my 125.

 

[mhart032]

Yes he broke down his tank and has 150lbs of figi live sand..

 

[GhostKnife]

huh... What do you mean by broke down. Is the sand still in water right now. If he took it out and bagged it that might be alright although I am not sure.

 

[melosu58]

I have a LFS that sells live sand out of a tank in it with just aragonite sand and water. That kind of sand I could say is probably "live" while the bagged sand I would say is not.

 

[mhart032]

he has it in buckets and its stored inside with saltwater. and my misstake its Caribbean medium to fine sand. the saltwater is still being filtered. he said had a 150g reef he broke down and sold the tank already. if i buy this sand from him how much do i need for a 40g hex stretch tank? the tank size is 30/18/21 i have been told i need a 1/2 of sand, and i have been told i need 1 1/2 inches and i have been told i need 2 inches.. also the guy i just bought my protein skimmer from gave me about 15lbs of dead coral sand.
thanks Matt

 

[thincat]

The problem with using someone elses sand is you also get someone elses problems. Buy new sand. If it's just for looks 1/2" is fine. If you want a DBS, you'll need 4"-6" of sand. Buy 5# or so of his LS to seed your new sand and let Nature do the rest.

 

[mhart032]

I ended up useing crushed coral. heres a pic of my new tank with some base rock and the crushed coral. waitting on live rock to come..

 

[roka64]

Hmmm, you might not be too happy with the CC a few months down the road. Make sure you keep it clean.

 

[mhart032]

I have heard this im thinking about changing it to sand so it stays cleaner. i didnt pay for the CC so i added it tonight. with it being a new tank shouldnt be that hard to extract and seed some sand..
thanks for the reply
Matt

 

[melosu58]

Yes you`ll be able to siphon the CC up in areas and then use a PVC pipe to slide the rinsed out sand down to the cleaned out spot.

 

[mhart032]

thats a great idea!!!
Matt