Is live sand in the bags really worth it? - Page 2

anthonys51 · 04/29/2015, 12:31 PM

honestly its all up to you. my thing is in a 10 gallon tank, you need 10 lbs of sand. live sand will cost you about 15 dollars more. to me its worth 15 bucks, but that's my opinion

Heatherabel3 · 04/29/2015, 01:08 PM

Oh wow. We were told by LFS that live sand is "a must" so bought it for the 28g. I have pods for days but that's it and for all I know it came from the live rock we bought. Good to know that the extra money for the sand isn't really necessary.

Kenpo guy · 04/29/2015, 01:38 PM

I've heard so much discussion and controversy on this topic so here's my .2 cents. I just started a 37 gal nano and I used one 20 lb bag of live sand a 10 lb bag of dry sand and 46 lbs of dry (not live) rock. The sand was cheaper than live rock because my tank footprint is small and I wanted a lot of rock. My tank cycled in 11 days and I never had any large ammonia spikes and never really had a bad algae problem either. I'm 5 and a half weeks into this tank and my water is clear, rocks and sand look great and all my levels for Ammonia, nitrates and nitrites are 0. Was it the live sand? Who knows this is the first time I've ever used it. But these are my results and I used it. I think the live cost me $10 or $12 more than dry so I guess it was worth it.

04/29/2015, 12:31 PM	#26
anthonys51 Registered Member. Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Kings Park, NY Posts: 2,789	honestly its all up to you. my thing is in a 10 gallon tank, you need 10 lbs of sand. live sand will cost you about 15 dollars more. to me its worth 15 bucks, but that's my opinion

04/29/2015, 01:08 PM	#27
Heatherabel3 Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2015 Posts: 182	Oh wow. We were told by LFS that live sand is "a must" so bought it for the 28g. I have pods for days but that's it and for all I know it came from the live rock we bought. Good to know that the extra money for the sand isn't really necessary.

04/29/2015, 01:38 PM	#28
Kenpo guy Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2015 Posts: 107	I've heard so much discussion and controversy on this topic so here's my .2 cents. I just started a 37 gal nano and I used one 20 lb bag of live sand a 10 lb bag of dry sand and 46 lbs of dry (not live) rock. The sand was cheaper than live rock because my tank footprint is small and I wanted a lot of rock. My tank cycled in 11 days and I never had any large ammonia spikes and never really had a bad algae problem either. I'm 5 and a half weeks into this tank and my water is clear, rocks and sand look great and all my levels for Ammonia, nitrates and nitrites are 0. Was it the live sand? Who knows this is the first time I've ever used it. But these are my results and I used it. I think the live cost me $10 or $12 more than dry so I guess it was worth it.