How do you know if you are getting live
sand or dead sand? This is a good question. With live rock (LR) you can
see that it is live, but with LS? The best way to insure that you are getting
good quality live sand is to purchase it from a reputable supplier that
collects it direct from the ocean or specializes in cultured LS, offering
shipping with as little transit time as possible. Look at the store's state
local in comparison to where you live. The shorter transit time it takes
the shipment to arrive to you, the better! You can also buy it from a long
established local fish store, but this might be costly. Just like with
LR,
some die off will
take place during shipping, and the live sand will most likely go through
a cycling process of some kind. How much cycling is necessary all depends
on the viability of the LS when it was shipped, and how much die off takes
place during transit.
If you don't want to buy LS, you can culture your
own by adding the stuff that makes it live. There are many types of live
micro and macro-organism sand starters available on the market, such as
the Cultured
Detritivore Kit from Inland Aquatics, SurfZone
Live Sand Activator Plus from IPSF, and others.
For more information on culturing your own live sand, Luis Mercado of Reef
Addictions has written a
review about Albert Thiel's "How to Culture Your Own Live Sand" article
contained in Thiel's Reef Infobase Netclub™
Library of Articles. To obtain this article you need to join Thiel's
Netclub™ for a small fee, but from Luis' review it sounds like it is well
worth the money, plus you get access to many other articles as well.
Next Page > Adding
LS to the Aquarium
Previous Page < How
Much LS to Use
