Cleaning Sand?

[ViperCLKGTR]

Well I decided to finally put a substrate in my tank and came across Ocean Direct™ Caribbean Live Sand. I'm confused though with my Freshwater Tank I had to clean my Black Moon sand but with this stuff it says it's living sand? Do I need to clean it and what not? Here's the PetSmart link to it:

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2753224#prodTab1

 

[ronin_man]

true live sand will have the worms and such that shift the sand and keep it active.
though this is packaged stuff so im not sure
might just be packaged with a culture of bacteria
and if you have a good clean up crew you probably wont need to clean it

 

[sweeTang21]

is this going into a SW or FW system?

All substrat can gather debris and fecis and should be cleaned regularly to keep sheet algae from growing, and also to prevent water quality problems.

 

[dr_sudz]

usually "live sand" comes wet, if it does just put it in, if not then rinse it.

 

[Otto_VonBacon]

That stuff is dry, it comes with a little packet you mix in the water that makes it live.

Just rinse it out as you would any dry sand.

 

[reefkeeper]

dont waste your money on the so called live stuff,,just get dry sand and toss in a few bits of live rock rubble. if you have good flow and a small clean up crew you will almost never need to "clean" your sand bed

 

[sweeTang21]

When cleaning sandbeds, its not recommended to go all the way down to the bottom of the tank, because you disturb natural gas pockets, which can release deadly nitrogen gas, and if in high enough levels can cause some serious PH and ALK problems which could in turn kill fish and coral. Just gently clean the surface with your syphone and this will remove any buildup you may have.

you may not have to clean often, but i would just give a once over when you do water changes, this will help prevent any algae growth. A common occurance due to waste buildup is cyano bacteria, which if not delt with in the first stages, can take a while to eradicate from the system.