Live sand or saltwater first?

Ok so from your other thread i think you wanted to use your tank to mix your first batch of salt water. If this is still the case i think i would mix the water in the tank first then add the sand when the salinity and temp is right.
 
Dont really make that much difference in my opinion...all tanks i have setup previously, i have put a 1/4 water in, added the sand, filled up with water, thrown salt in and left it too mix....
 
Well, if it is "Live Sand" you don't want to throw freshwater in there first then mix the salt with the sand. Either mix the saltwater first and do as Reefscape mentioned, 1/4 water, put sand in, then fill the rest, or you can put FW in the tank, mix the salt in, then add the sand (remember this will raise the water level though, so be careful of overflowing your tank if you go this route). It doesn't really matter which order, but I think it is important to make sure "Live Sand" is put in saltwater, not fresh because of the bacteria in the sand that is SW bacteria. If the sand were dry sand I would say it doesn't matter at all because there is nothing to harm in dry sand.. but with live sand you can potentially kill off most of the bacteria throwing it in freshwater, at that point you wasted your money buying the live stuff. Now this is all going on the assumption that Live Sand has saltwater in the bag with it.. to be honest, I am not 100% possitive on that. They may put in freshwater and bacteria in the bag, which if that is the case, completely disregard what I said and just follow Reefscapes advice all the way.
 
That was what i was thinking. I was also thinking u where getting live sand from a lfs not the bags. If u are buying the bags u might want to see what some of the more experienced folks on the site know about it. From what i have read and hear the sand in the bag may not be worth the price. Some people feel that much of the bacteria may not survive sitting in the bag all that time at all different temps.

Edit: Hey this is my 100th post nice.
 
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I have never had a problem with it. Remember that the one thing about live sand is bacteria. Bacteria depending on type can lay very much dormant and not need things like light and oxygen as it will make its own.
So the belief that the live sand in the bag is not the route one would take is one that can be argued.
I will tell you that you can do a lot of things to bacteria and it will survive. Takes a lot to kill it, less extreme heat. Besides with just a little bit of bacteria, it would be enough to begin to seed the tank, then it continues to multiply with the addition of live rock.
 
I think live sand is a waste of money, its just normal sand with some bottled bacteria thrown in and the price ramped up...I usually just suggest normal aragonite dry sand, and let the live rock seed it...
 
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