Any sand as live sand?

[lnelms2]

I have a friend who wants to make the switch to Marine tanks. He has a couple of buckets of black flourite sand leftover from his FW tank. He says it will be fine for his FOWLR setup, that it's sand and once it's been with LR long enough it'll be "live". I don't know enough about this topic to dispute it, but I told him I don't think it's going to work. Is he right? Will this work?

 

[LD50]

it could I suppose, but god knows what kind of problems it might cause. Algae, diatoms, water quality etc. I would really suggest just getting some dry plain ol' aragonite and avoid the issues.

 

[calpoly12]

If he's going to do it, he might as well do it right. It's not worth setting it all up,dumping some $$$ into it and then watching it grenade. As I've recently found out, he doesn't need to buy live sand to cycle the tank or anything. He can buy some "dry stuff" and it will do. The means of him cycling the tank will be different however but thats a different story.
Eventually the sand will become "live" as it will have some living organisms in it which I guess technically makes it alive, but in my opinion all salt water tanks do have live sand once its established. Fleshy has really helped me out with saltwater lately and hopefully he will post here. If not shoot him a PM and I'm sure he can help you out greatly. Remember, if its worth doing its worth overdoing. Taking shortcuts doesn't always work. Best of luck and keep us updated!
Edit: BTW, beautiful pic you got there Inelms2!!!

 

[lnelms2]

it could I suppose, but god knows what kind of problems it might cause. Algae, diatoms, water quality etc. I would really suggest just getting some dry plain ol' aragonite and avoid the issues.

That's what I was thinking.

If he's going to do it, he might as well do it right. It's not worth setting it all up,dumping some $$$ into it and then watching it grenade. As I've recently found out, he doesn't need to buy live sand to cycle the tank or anything. He can buy some "dry stuff" and it will do. The means of him cycling the tank will be different however but thats a different story.
Eventually the sand will become "live" as it will have some living organisms in it which I guess technically makes it alive, but in my opinion all salt water tanks do have live sand once its established. Fleshy has really helped me out with saltwater lately and hopefully he will post here. If not shoot him a PM and I'm sure he can help you out greatly. Remember, if its worth doing its worth overdoing. Taking shortcuts doesn't always work. Best of luck and keep us updated!
Edit: BTW, beautiful pic you got there Inelms2!!!

Thanks.

 

[FLESHY]

Yea flourite is nutrient enriched, it seems like a nightmare from the get go.

 

[Zoodiver]

In general, any substrate will become "live" sand. The term "live" just means there is aerobic bacteria growing on the surface....so technically ANY wet surface in the system is "live".

 

[lnelms2]

Yea flourite is nutrient enriched, it seems like a nightmare from the get go.

He's trying to explain that it's only special because it has mud in it for plants but once he rinses all the mud out it's just plain black sand, which makes it okay for any aquarium setting "which it even says on the bag"... I'll let him do it since he won't listen to reason, but I'm selling the flourite out of my last FW tank and converting it to Marine... Anyone know someone who wants to buy 150# of it? lol

 

[FLESHY]

It does say that on the bag, here is exactly what it says:

http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/FlouriteRed.html

That BEING said, it is not a mud, it is a nutrient enriched clay. Look at all the things he will be dumping into his setup.

Not natural at all, in addition to that, it will not be the cal/buffer that aragonite substrates are. He will not be happy long term with this unless he is doing something incredibly simple.

 

[FLESHY]

The substrate also has copper, so you should tell him not to plan to keep any invertebrates.

 

[lnelms2]

It does say that on the bag, here is exactly what it says:

http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/FlouriteRed.html

That BEING said, it is not a mud, it is a nutrient enriched clay. Look at all the things he will be dumping into his setup.

Not natural at all, in addition to that, it will not be the cal/buffer that aragonite substrates are. He will not be happy long term with this unless he is doing something incredibly simple.

The substrate also has copper, so you should tell him not to plan to keep any invertebrates.

Thanks for the info, I will let him know. He's stubborn as a no-legged mule though so we'll see what he says.