Dead Sand

[bpanesiu]

I'm new to the whole aquarium hobby so bare with me. I just received a 60g tank with light and filter for free from a buddy which I wanted to turn into a freshwater with blacklights but after finding out the water will look milky I am gonna go with the saltwater and no blacklights. On Craigslist I found an ad for live sand that someone is selling. He told me that the sand has has been sitting in water in room temp but no water flow and he thinks its along the lines of dead now. Is it dead? Can i make it live agian? Should I buy 60 pounds of it for $20 or should I go to my lfs where they are going out of business and they are selling live sand for 50 cents a pound.

Help is greatly appreciated

Thank you,
Ben

 

[Conski]

Id say just get new sand... always looks better.

but the sand isnt "dead" if you got new well cured live rock it would seed the sand and make it "alive" again in no tme

 

[bpanesiu]

He just emailed me and said he has 60 pounds of "dead sand" and rock and he has 40 pounds of sand that will not need a cycle it is ready to go. Should I buy both and mix?

 

[greech]

You are going to need a cycle either way because the sand has been all mixed up. If its good quality sand with lots of diverse life that would be better than bagged "live" sand. If you trust it go ahead but if this guy just scraped out one of his existing tanks, the sand is going to be all gunked up and you will need to let the sand (and rock) cycle through.

 

[bpanesiu]

Thanks Greech I'm a little short on money this month so I dont have alot of options to work with so I will buy the 40 pounds of good live sand he has with 20 pounds of some of the "dead" (i know its not technically dead) sand he has and then buy some live rock from lfs and add water and let it cycle for sometime. I will start a new thread and post pictues.

 

[Ace25]

He told me that the sand has has been sitting in water in room temp but no water flow and he thinks its along the lines of dead now. Is it dead?

That sounds really bad to me.. old stagnent sand just sounds like a lot of bad things waiting to happen. Without flow and heat I bet most of the "live" stuff has died off and will cause more problems than it would help if you use it. It would be better to buy dead sand and find someone locally with a tank running and just get a cup or 2 worth of their sand to seed your new sand.

 

[greech]

If you are going that route I would definetly wash/rinse the sand that is dead (sitting with no heat/flow). Ask a lot of questions about the "good"/live sand he has. Where did it come from and how has it been kept live. If you have concerns just wash it all really good (assuming its a great deal). The live rock you get will help to seed it and make it live again. You can get a 20 lb bag of dry aragonite sand from Petsmart for about $20. Not sure if this is cheaper (considering you might want 2 bags) but it might be safer.