Live sand dead?!

[jqnguyen]

I recently bought a 20lb bag of carribsea live sand, opened it up and it smelled like rotten eggs. I didn't care to wash it or think anything of it. Im assuming it's dead now? I have water and everything set up already. Luckily I had a 10lb bag of carribsea that i thought was the same but turns out to be not as fine. But it smelled fresh so I poured it in the tank evenly about 5 lbs only to help seed. Is that okay? Is the dead sand bad? Will I give me troubles

 

[blur456]

Yuck. I'm no expert but I say return it for a refund. Get regular dry sand....the live sand has minimal value for the price paid. Use live rock to seed.

 

[Ptyochromis]

I used carib-sea live sand and it smelled fine. I wouldn't use the stinky sand, the rotten egg smell is sulfur which means there was a significant amount of rot in the bag. Sulfur is the byproduct of anaerobic respiration. Could cause all sorts of issues with nitrates ammonia and who knows what else, you are going to want anaerobes in your sand bed but not like this.

 

[sahin]

Most definately...I used that stuff a few years ago; didnt smell like rotten eggs. These bagged sand have a shelf life. Mine had the date printed on it and was still some time left.

 

[Mcluett]

Like Blur said, use dry sand and just use some live rock to seed your tank. Live sand in a bag just seems odd to me, I feel it is just a money grab.

 

[jqnguyen]

The sand is already in my tank

 

[Cymonous]

Is this a new tank? How old is it? Still cycling?

It may be better in the long run to start over if this is a new tank. The bad stuff from that sand has already leached into your water and may not be worth having.

 

[darkiss]

where can we buy cheap base sand?

Surely we can just seed some base sand with live sand and not need to buy all live sand?

 

[jqnguyen]

It's a new tank, I am replacing the sand this weekend just to be sure. Can I reuse the water? Or should I get new saltwater. Kinda don't want to waste the water since its such a hassle

 

[Breadman03]

where can we buy cheap base sand?

Surely we can just seed some base sand with live sand and not need to buy all live sand?

Just get aragonite sand. "Live" just refers to bacteria colonies being established on the surface of the sand grains. This will occur without any seeding, but using some live (wet, from a running system) rock is helpful in speeding up the process.

 

[jqnguyen]

I have a new bag of 20lb live aragonite sand! question is do I need to replace the water in my tank?

 

[jqnguyen]

What a pain to take it all out

 

[gone fishin]

If it was me I would ditch the water. I would also just go with dry aragonite sand. It will become live during your cycle. The bagged live sand is just a marketing gimmick in my opinion.

 

[jqnguyen]

After everything's cleaned up do I drop one or two shrimps in there? How long do I leave it in there

 

[gone fishin]

I am guessing with one bag of sand your tank is around a 30g. I would drop one shrimp. Wait till the ammonia, nitrite peak and go to zero and your nitrates are the only thing left and pull whats left of the shrimp out if any. do a water change.

 

[jqnguyen]

17 gal rimless

 

[moab]

:spin1:

 

[moab]

I recently bought a 20lb bag of carribsea live sand, opened it up and it smelled like rotten eggs. I didn't care to wash it or think anything of it. Im assuming it's dead now? I have water and everything set up already. Luckily I had a 10lb bag of carribsea that i thought was the same but turns out to be not as fine. But it smelled fresh so I poured it in the tank evenly about 5 lbs only to help seed. Is that okay? Is the dead sand bad? Will I give me troubles

I had some completely dead dry reef rock that my wife had in buckets for six years that I put into my tank and then I added two bags of CaribSea live sand to set up my reef tank with(once the rock was put on the bottom of the tank glass). Neither bag that I used smelled like rotten eggs at all. My tank cycled extremely fast using the live sand and adding some dry fish food every day.

I did not add one piece of live rock to my tank until the tank had cycled completely. Once the tank cycled then I put in one extremely nice live rock into my tank that had tons of life on it already. This one piece of live rock came alive in this tank and has done extremely well in this tank. Now life is forming on the other dead rocks in this tank slowly.

I highly recommend the CaribSea live sand for establishing a new tank with. This live sand was not more expensive than the dead dry sand I could buy at the local LFS. The CaribSea was nicer looking also and they have several different types to choose from.