live sand

[D.Barta]

I took down a tank down 6 months ago and put the live sand in a bucket and stored it in my shed. Wondering if this sand can be mixed with fresh live sand and used again.Also wondering if I have to use live sand to start up a new refugium.Trying to find cheapest route since refugium its self broke me!

D.Barta

[Ram_Puppy]

did you store it wet or dry? I don't think it will make much of a difference, You CAN use it, just expect to cycle the refugium before you hook it up.

[D.Barta]

I stored it wet.

[matt]

I wouldn't use it, unless you thoroughly wash everything out. If there were worms and micro life in there, and you basically filled a bucket with the stuff and let it sit, chances are real high it all died from lack of oxygen/circulation/food/pollution/you name it. Doesn't it smell terrible? If not, maybe there wasn't much life in it. Either way, I'd wash it seriously out in fresh water and let it dry before using it.

Now if you kept a small quantity in a very large bucket filled to the top with water and with a powerhead for circulation, changed some water, sort of treated it like an aquarium, then it would be fine.

[D.Barta]

Think I,ll be safe and throw it out ,any suggestions for using any thing besides live sand.Could I use live sand mixed with dry and let it cycle?

[Sunhutch]

Ill take it if your gonna throw it out.

[Ram_Puppy]

other options for a fuge would include Garf Grunge, Miracle Mud, Kent Mud, so on... I think there is some debate, but it seems that 'mudders' in general have a high opinion of 'mud filters' (which is a fuge running something like miracle mud) I would speculate (note speculate as I haven't used any of these products) that Garf Grunge and or Grunge Plus probably carries the best bang for it's buck as it is supposed to come with mini-stars, copepods, amphipods, mysid shrimp and other fauna, in addition to the all important bacterial composition you usually get from live sand. you could also get live sand from your established tank, or from someone elses established tank, or do both...

Lots of options! If your interested in the garf stuff, I think it is www.garf.org... I think (stress think) marine depot may sell miracle mud, but I am not sure. I haven't seen it locally. I also suspect you will need to start off with a high load of macro algae with any of these options, there is speculatoin that for instance, miracle mud is high in iron, which is why it fules macro algae growth so well... I don't know if anyone knows for sure. do some google searches, I think, just like DSB debates, you will find lots of interesting data on both sides.