Live Sand - Good... or waste of money?
 

I'm setting up a new 65gal reef tank and have been looking at sand/substrate. I've heard and read pros/cons to using live sand for a new tank (vs regular or dry sand). Pros: live sand is "suppose" to cycle the new tank quicker. But I've also heard that live sand serves no purpose because the cycle process of ammonia/nitrites will kill most everything in the live sand anyway... thereby making the "live" sand useless.

Comments...

lots of people buy dry and and the seed it with a cup from an established reef.

depending on what's in your live rock that can seed the sand with bacteria at a minimum and most likely a lot of other critters too.

I have used the live sand many times... just add once cycle is complete. Or use dry from the get go... have done this too! I think it is just personnel preference. :biggrin:

Use dry well-washed sand. Buying bags of live sand IMO & IME is a waste of $$. Get a cup of sand from someone's tank (non-medicated) or just wait for the bacteria in the LR to seed it (as others have stated).

We pay for our water :wink:

I was a newbie. I started with dead sand. I had a lot of problem. Fish died, and coral died even though after a month cycled. I then had to buy the live sand. The live sand is only $4 more expensive than the dry sand (20lbs bag). It sure booted up the system pretty quick. Also, I bough 8lbs of live rock and 30lbs of fiji rock.
The importing thing is benificial bacteria. If you can find bio-spira which is made by Instant Ocean, get two of that bottles. If you found this, you could immediately introduce fish or coral in your tank for cycling purposes. Otherwise, 10 full caps of Stability from Seachem for the first week. Then 5 full caps for the following week. Then 5 full caps every time you do water change. You can add fish after two weeks after using Seachem.
I had no luck of starting my tank. All the advice on the internet is generally the same. That is my own experience.
I even do water change twice a week

Someone's sand has a lot Phospho. I don't think it is a good idea to put in the new tank.

I find, if you're adding live rock, minimum half pound per gallon, that's enough to add critters to your tank. Use whatever sand is cheaper. "Live" sand IMO is a gimmick and a waste of the extra money, although if you pay for water, rinsing regular sand might bring the cost closer. Bottles of bacteria are also a gimmick and not required. Cycled live rock is enough.
As an example, I set my tank up on a Monday, Tuesday I moved all my livestock, which is a fairly heavy load. No issues whatsoever.

Much easier to be patient and stay away from all that chemical crap. This is total newbie advice and just plain wrong.