Live Sand Seeding?

Zeetrain

Can you seed an entire tank with nly getting live sand? With rock for it to seed, but none of the rock being alive already.

badxgillen

that is arguable..but in my opinion no...you miss out on so many small creatures and micro fauna...sponges ,star fishes, copapods,duster worms,nematodes,and various algaes...i would recomend getting at least a small piece of live rock to establish the new rock..once again you could just use live sand but you would be missing out on the whole shabang.

Zeetrain

Alright so then I could setup some rock with a couple of live rock on the top and then pour live sand in over that or wait for all the rock to get seeded from the few that are already alive and then add sand?

bigrift

i wouldnt pour the sand on top of the base rock. live sand can contain coraline alge spores but if you pour it on the rock to be seeded the spores will float around settle back on the sand and grow there. if anything lay the sand first place the base rock then any live rock on top of the base rock. youll most likely see ditom (brown alge) growing fiorst on the base rock and glass first a good clean up crew should handle it no problem. the diatom alge will then turn green on the base rock. its a long prosses so be patient.

Zeetrain

I read that pouring the sand after putting rock in is good because it helps prevent them from toppling over (maybe it was just the base rock). So thats not a good idea?

badxgillen

yes just put the begining of your rock work on the bottom of the aquarium so there will be more structual integrity to your rock work..the sand surrounding will help to see that it does not topple.not to put sand on the rock but around the base for support.

Zeetrain

Ok Thanks for the replies.

badxgillen

i am hopeing you get us a build thread going on soon...maybe.