Live sand

When I started my reef, live sand didn't exist.
At least not commercially.

What are some of the good commercial brands?
What do you use?

 

i like the carib sea ls its not full of critters but has the bacteria in it. also after adding it to my tank my ph stabalized and havent had to add any ph adjusters at all. a little more money but worth it wahoo!!!!! oh_yeah wahoo!!!!!

 

Caribsea does look good.

Are there commercial ones with critters?

 

i dont know of any that have critters. just maby if you can get it at a lfs. i got a microfauna kit from IA and seeded it with that.

 

I noticed that swf sells 'clean up crew' packages for the sand. That is pretty cool.

 

I bought my ls and my clean up crew from SWF. I have been very happy except for the ls didn't have any critters in it. Do you know of any good places to get a seeding kit?

 

these are the only 2 places i know of for seeding kits IPSF http://www.ipsf.com/ and IA has a detrivore kit http://www.inlandaquatics.com/prod/prod_detrit.html IA also has a fauna kit has the same stuff as the det kit minus bristle worms http://www.inlandaquatics.com/prod/prod_refu.html i havent found any other places with seeding kits.i got mine frome IA had pods, mysis shrimp, mini brittle and micro stars, peppernimt and stomatella snails, and i added trochus snails as an extra item. the stars and stomatella snails are defitinly multiplying i turned off the light and about 7 baby snails came out from behind the pwr head. also there were about 6 mini brittle stars the other day i counted 16, there are definitly more micro stars just not sure how many.

 

Those two places have great reputations.

Got any tricks for adding critters to an existing tank in a way that they don't get eaten by the fish, crabs, etc.. that are already in the tank?

 

a good idea to add critters to an established tank would be to feed your fish well. then turn off the lights to add them. this way the fish arnt hungry and with the lights off will more likely hide and not chase anything. then leave them off for several hours so they can start going in the rock and sand. i added to a tank with no fish so i put it in and let it go for 2 weeks adding food every day. the food kept dissapearing quicker until id put it in and it was gone in a couple of hours. that is a good sign that they are taking to the tank

 

when I add live sand to my tank do i have to use gloves or anything.