Live Sand,dry Sand, Or Crushed Coral?

[mcbunnymama]

We want to do this tank set-up right, so we want to know: live sand,dry sand, or crushed coral? lfs says it's up to us, so we want some guidance on this, BB is not really an option because lfs is housing our goby for us for the time being and we really want him back.

[drdude05]

I'm confused by your distinction between live sand and dry sand. Do you mean "live sand" as in the prebagged stuff in water that is "supposed to be "live" or the stuff that the LFS scoops out of thier LR holding system ... etc ... as opposed to a plain bag of dry aragonite sand?

If so, then I would not waste the money on prebagged "live sand" as it really isn't worth it and you don't get much benefit from it. I personally wouldn't use sand out of any of the systems at a LFS. Sand beds trap waste, detritus, etc and your tank will produce enough of its own waste naturally without adding a bunch from someone elses system. The only excetion I would consider is a small portion of sand from an established bed to "seed" a new bed. However, dry sand from a bag will become "live" over time as the live rock seeds it anyway.

As for sand vs crushed coral ... is this going to have LR and be a reef or a fish only? For reef I would go with sand. Larger media size i.e. crushed coral can trap ditritus more readily.

HTH

[Loverotties]

What type of tank setup is it?What type of fish?Cleanup crew?Way to vague.

[Fat Tony]

Dry sand. No real need for live sand, and CC just becomes a headache.

[zero186]

Dry sand that LS they call it that been sitting in the LFS for 2 months arent normally to live after all, plus Dry is cheaper and in time it will be live sand as well

[Reeftanker3295]

Agreed, get some play sand or "marine grade sand" from the pet store, cost me 15 bucks to make a 2.5 inch deep sand bed in a 10 gallon, which is 25 pounds of sand. much cheaper then live sand

[Fat Tony]

I normally go to Petsmart and get the 30lb bags of dry Caribsea Oolitic sand for 19.99,

[biowheel]

BB BB Go BB

[jenglish]

Yep, start with dry sand. If you have any live rock at all or get a scoop of live sand from a local it will soon be crawling with far more than you get in a bag of "live sand." I used to live near a store that would just bag you up sand out of their tanks... it was actually live

[zero186]

Originally Posted by jenglish

Yep, start with dry sand. If you have any live rock at all or get a scoop of live sand from a local it will soon be crawling with far more than you get in a bag of "live sand." I used to live near a store that would just bag you up sand out of their tanks... it was actually live

If i saw them scoop it out of a LFS tank i would considering it myself but that bagged stuff they sell to me is one of the biggest rip offs in fish history

[mcbunnymama]

going to be a reef tank with: 2 false percs, tangaroa goby(antenna goby) possibly a bangai cardinal and not sure what else, snails only no crabs, would love a jawfish, but not sure with the goby
btw -50g tank

[salty198]

Originally Posted by Fat Tony

Dry sand. No real need for live sand, and CC just becomes a headache.

I started with cc cause I liked the look.. over time starts to look bad... wish I did sand from the start... slowly I am removing some with each water change and replacing with dry sand... same as FT said I normally go to Petsmart and get the 30lb bags of dry Caribsea Oolitic sand for 19.99,"

Killed off half my acan so far...ouch

[mcbunnymama]

just out of curiosity how much sand do I buy for a 50g tank?

[Fat Tony]

how deep do you want the sand?

[mcbunnymama]

would really like a jawfish(though not sure my goby would) so not sure how deep it would need to be for jawfish-without jawfish I suppose 2"