tampa bay saltwater live sand
 

after ordering pods, worms, etc from ipsf.com today i now want to order a few lbs live sand,maybe from TBS, to further seed my 8 month old DSB. my DSB looks pretty void of life. supposedly TBS live sand has lots of life. i called and they told me the sand has lots of worms, pods, hermits and tiny stars. has anyone ordered live sand from them and how was it. are those hermits reef safe and what's up with those tiny stars, i thought i read somewhere that u shouldn't have them in tank.

DMK,

I cannot speak for the stars. Not much experience in that arena but the sand is chock full of life. Lots of crustaceans, hermits, worms, I got a clam the size of a lemon who sticks out his foot and leaps around the tank. Is is a very coarse sand, lots of coralline and the like. It is kinda like sand-stew if ya know what I mean.

Just 2 cents for ya

-landlord

thanks, anyone else, i'm alittle worried about those tiny starts.

i mean tiny stars.

I have several of the small stars that came with my TBS sand and there has been no problem whatsoever. I'm curious as to what the concern over them would be? Been told something
I should know??:)

some time back someone said that but who knows even if they no anything. i wouldn't think there would be a problem. has was your LS, full of life? what about hermits. TBS said will be a few hermits, are they small. was the sand at all colorful (coralline)/crushed shells?

Interesting thread. Also looking for the same answers as DMK. Thanks.

Sand is very colorful. Lots of encrusting coralline/encrusted shells.

I got lots of stuff in the sand, here is a small list.

baby Conks/cone snails
small to medium serpent stars
small white legged hermit crabs
a sea cucumber (not tiger tail)
plenty of worms and pods
a small clam
a baby anenome who is now about 5 milimeters in size and living towards the top of my tank on the glass. (no it's not aptasia)

All of this stuff, apart from maybe the cone shells, are good for your tank. The stars eat ditritus.

Oh and I got 50 lbs of sand.

got my live sand with a 130 pound package as soon as i put it in there were worms every where. As soon as i could see tons of life came out of the sand worms pods hermits snailsand i also have a cucumber as well.
only thing about TBS live sand is it is alot of crushed shells so it look very different from most sand.
as you can see in this picture
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/28890One.jpg

Has any of you mixed this sand with sometihng liek Southdown? And if so what type of results did you get? Thank you.

Looks Strange?
 

We get the same questions about our live sand almost every day....why does it look so differant from what I see on the stores shelf?

Why is it not bright white?

Why are there shells, clams, hermits and coraline bits in it?"

Our live sand may look strange to you......But our sand is the real thing, collected from the base of the reef and made up of the reef itself, which is why it is so alive.

Unfortunately what yall see up north as "live sand" in a bag is nothing more than crushed coral, crushed a little more. Thus you get the impression that "live Sand" should be white and pristine looking, nothing could be further from the truth.

How can sand in a bag on a stores shelf be alive?

Easy, toss some bacteria in it and it can be called "live sand", which it is, but not what I would put in my aquarium, I like the benefits of the myriad amounts of life that occur in real live sand collected from the ocean.

When you go diving in the Gulf on a reef, what do you see?

Substrate that is made up of corallines, shells, corals, rocks, worms, hermits, pods, and zillions of other live critters you can, and cannot see with your naked eye, but never the less full of life.

It is not bright white, clean as you see live sand in a bag, as if it was it would not be so alive with animals.

Reefers have an impression of live sand as that is what you see in stores if it is not collected from the ocean.

Sand in a bag is fine, but real live sand is much better, is like Volkswagens and Cadillac's, both do the same thing, one does it better.

If you want your reef tank to be as close to the natural ocean environment, use what mother nature does. real live sand and live rock and the critters that live in the natural reef.

I recently sent some sand to Dr. Ron for evaluation, he can give you a more scientific evaluation of real live sand benefits.

Thanks!
Richard TBS
www.tbsaltwater.com


:rollface:

sea star & DSB
 

If you read thru the TBS site, they recommend just putting their sand on the bottom, no DSB, plenums, etc. That said, I just threw their sand on top of my pristine white (no longer pristine white) plenum, and stirred very lightly. I've got bristle worms and snails diving thru the substrate, no problems at all. I'm pretty sure I've got a pistol shrimp in there (spotted him late one night after part 1; hear occassional clicks), but I'm sure he's made his burrow where his privacy won't be invaded. Aside from the fact that you'll have cloudy water for a while, you shouldn't have any problems mixing the TBS live sand with your sand. You just won't have as high a density of micro/meso fauna as the native LS.

There are a number of tiny (1/4" total size) to mid-size (1-2" total size) serpent or brittle stars mixed in the TBS stuff. You don't need to worry that they're the green serpent star (Ophiarachna, I think) which eats fish when big. That serpent star is an indo-pacific species.

There exists a pest starfish (Asterina folium) which doesn't get very large, but has been accused of feeding on corals. See Fenner/Calfo's 'Reef Invertebrates' if you want details. It is considered a pest because it's prolific, but Fenner/Calfo maintain that it is misunderstood, and is essentially an algae/detritus grazer. I don't know that TBS sand would necessarily have this species.

Can be done.....but
 

HY
You can do it that way.....but your sand bed is too deep, eventually you will develope dead spots as the critters cannot stir that deep......may take a few years, but sooner or later it will happen. We suggest one pound per gallon, gives you about 1.5 inch... which is perfect....

Richard TBS
www.tbsaltwater.com:rollface:

O.k. that is fine. My friend has about a 1.5" southdown sandbed. I wanted to get him a small package with all the good stuff. Probably like the 20 package. Can he just mix with his existing since it is already established? Thanks.

Can do, the sand bed will be a bit deep, but many folks use DSB....

Thanks
Richard TBS
:rollface:

LOOKS NATURAL
 

Hey, I don't like cadilac's :-( But I love Vockswagens....

But I love your LIVE sand. IT IS FULL OF LIFE

Corey

Hey Richard,

I am still waiting for my tank to be delivered, however I am also trying to budget for your package. As my tank is particularily tall (31"H, 48"L, 24"W;155G) should I plan on adujusting from the package for the amount of sand to stay at around 1.5"? Possibly not if I want to seed my refugium with TBS live sand as well...

Also if the sand has a good population of pods is it reasonable to assume that I might be able to move up by a couple months the standard 8-12 months to build up a large enough volume of pods to get a Mandarin?

Thanks

I would recomend anything from TBS. I got the LR and Its the most beautiful LR Ive seen so far. Full of life and full of Coraline. Very healthy. I wish I would have known of them sooner and I would have bought their sand. :D

V-DUBS
 

Me too, first car was a 1960 bug, paid $250 for it in 1969......
took me everywhere!
Richard TBS:rollface:

Use the chart..
 

Live rock and live sand from real tropical reef environments look white-ish and not that filthy. Just search on google great barrier reef sand pictures or coral reef sand pictures. It's white.

All sand has to be collected in federal waters which is nine miles offshore . Enjoy the beach

Not to necro an old post but when you say one pound per gallon are you talking about dry volume / total size or something else?

Yes, my 240 is in the garage up and running doing a leak check :) I need to finish a hood for the tank and some crown molding in the room it is going in then I can probably, finally, order :)

live sand
 

It would be one lb per gallon when ordering, this gives the depth 1 inch to inch and a half in the tank . Weather is rough but we have had most items . The sand is always under water and will be shipped with water enough to keep everything alive . Thanks Dan in shipping . http://tbsaltwater.com/thepackage/setup.html