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

[brizzo]

Originally Posted by Leah

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.

Best advice in thread. You're cycling the rock, why add sand? It makes it harder to clean if you have a diatom bloom or other algae

[lastlight]

Not to mention rock can shed an incredible amount of crap while it cycles...

[RGS88]

Originally Posted by lastlight

Not to mention rock can shed an incredible amount of crap while it cycles...

I read somewhere that if you're using live rock to cycle a brand new tank... to keep the sand out at the beginning as there will be a lot of die off/shedding that needs to be cleaned up/siphoned from the bottom of the tank. That would be tough to do with sand in the bottom of the tank as opposed to cleaning stuff off of the bottom plate of glass. The advice was to cycle a new tank "only" with live rock and nothing else, then once the tank is cycled and stabilized, add sand after that point.

Don't know if this is all true or not. I just remember reading it somewhere in a Reef book.

[reefwars]

i can sell you live water if you like all the pluses that livesand has to offer and just as much a scam hehe regular sand is just fine