Seed the sandbed

[pat8you]

I am trying to find somewhere that i can buy some of the bugs and worms and other fauna that promote a healthy deep sand bed. There are a couple LFS in the area that i could get some sand from their tanks but i am concerned about that. Even the best LFS has the problem that comes with moving so much live stock in and out; They also move a lot of disease and parasites in and out. I thought i remember Ich having a stage in it's lifecycle where the eggs incubated in the sand bed and then released into the water in much greater numbers. Just kind of thinking out loud here but anyone have any ideas?

 

[HN1]

Crush up a small piece of established LR and bury the pieces into the sand?

 

[ryshark]

I did not seed my sandbed, but if I were to, I would start with mostly dry Caribsea sand. Then to seed it, I would buy a couple pounds from various LFS and then sift through the sand for worms or whatever and then QT the sand for......I don't know.....6-8 weeks, so hopefully any nasties you picked up(if any) would die off, like ich as you mentioned.
That would increase the biodiversity of your sandbed.

 

[cmor1701d]

Well Ich has a month long lifecycle. So even it you seed the sand from an infected tank, as long you don't add any fish for a month you will not get an Ich infestations.
Or get some from Ziggy or another member, buy some online, or don;t worry about the sand. As HN1 said, the LR will help it along.

Indo Pacific Sea Farms, Inland Aquatics and others sell detrivore kits just for this purpose.

 

[pat8you]

Normally i would not be concerned with seeding the sandbed as much and just let it run it's course and it would be come diverse over time. I am running a deep sand bed in my sump (7-8 inches) and a DSB requireds a good diversity/density of fauna in the sandbed to continually move around the sand and prevent clumping in the long run.

Optimal situation would be getting it from a member i trust in the area but i don't know any around here since ziggys old tank got taken down. I may end up ordering from indo pacific. Thanks guys

 

[Ziggy953]

Most of those "kits" are DOA. I would join WAMAS and get in touch with a few members in your area and get some sand or macro from them.