Live Sand Question

[Gary D]

I am oh, so very s-l-o-w-ly getting my 90 gal reef together. Buying a peice of equipment every month (dropping a couple grand a one time would shock my wife. It's easier on both of us this way) and was wondering about culturing some live sand in a spare 20 gallon tank while it's all coming together. If so, what lighting requirements do you suggest? How about feeding all these little sand critters so they'll multiply? Should I put a fish in this tank or is there something else recommended? Thanks for your help!

[Drew]

If all you want to do is culture LS then you don't need much light, and NO flour tube or two would be fine. If you must get a fish, get one that will not eat the creatures you are trying to culture. Finally, feed the sand some sinking shrimp pellets and that should be good. HTH.

Drew

[MikeP]

Hey Gary;
I can answer one of your questions since I am seeding my own sand bed.
If you don't have live sand see if you LFS will give you some or buy a little either on line or at the LFS. I am using some from my 29 gallon tank.
I have about 50+ lbs of southdown sand in a large container and I put water from a water change in the container added a pump and lighting and threw in a small piece of shrimp in there and I stir it a little every day(I used a wooden dowel).
In about 30 days your nitrates and ammonia should be gone and there u go, a live sand bed.

The first time I did it I bought about 25-30 lbs of argonite sand I believe from petwarehouse.com
and it said on the package that it was "Full or Live organism" I did the process above and it does work. Good Luck.
You may be able to find southdown sand at Home Depot in the Garden center area near the packaged pebbles, blue and clear bag.

[Gary D]

Thanks for the insight! Boy, would I like to find some Southdown sand at my Home Depot. From everything I've read it is only available on the east coast. Michigan, unfortunatly is not on the east coast. I'm going to see if they will order some. I'll tell them everybody will buy it, order tons! Thanks again, Gary

[OodleyBoodely]

You can also add one or two pieces of live rock to seed it with, also. Look for very porous pieces that have some life such as algae and sponges on it - the more obvious life you can see, the more actual pods, worms, and other useful fauna will be in it.