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IMO, not at all. It's essentially a bag of sand with water in it. It doesn't make you cycle any faster and really has no benefit (Remember: This is all IMO). Also, most live sands suggest no rinsing, which means an extra long sandstorm when you first put it in and all the dust settles on top and is very easily disturbed. Whereas with dry sand you rinse all the dust out and you don't have that problem
Ok went to the LFS today and I trust the owner he has had his SW at home for 20 years we just said give us everything we need for our tank and he did and cut us tons of deals along the way. We bought arginite and then live sand to top it off. He gave us some free bacteria to start it up too. We spend a near fortune about 400 but would have been way more I'd he didn't help us out.