oolite live sand

ocean direct oolite sand 40lb live bag its been in warm weather throughout shipping atleast 40's but even if the bag was frozen from shipping is the bacteria in anyway still alive and useable?

 

Most of that sand is just wet and has the "potential" of having live bacteria. Once the bag is sealed, there is no gas exchange, which means no oxygen. No oxygen = death. I could be wrong. When I started my tanks, I used dry sand and used a small bag of "live" sand to seed the rest. The best way to get live bacteria is to see if a friend will give you a cup of cycled sand from an established tank.

 

Agreed. Use dry sand and seed it. Your LFS will give you a cupfull of their sand as well.

 

+1 to this!

 

its actually a patent pending breathable bag i thought it was a joke but i figured hey why not try it

 

Nice like the freezer bags that keep veggies fresh! lol. Go for it, I was just disappointed when I bought live sand and nothing alive came out of it.

 

as long as its not 100% dead its not a big deal with me it lists a few mollusks it contains i personally dont see any not that i really looked,and live sand you wont see it "alive" like starfish or giant worms its all microscopic stuff i think i mean if they have a patent for it they must think there doing somthing special patents cost money

 

Those breathable bags are the same type they use for transporting fish, well kind of. Those bags allow CO2 to leave the bag, but not allow O2 to enter. The Caribsea and Ocean Direct sand, as far as I know, don't use those types of bags, as they are not very strong, tensile wise. The best way to test how alive or dead the sand is, is to do a simple ammonia test on the water it comes in. I would bet my lunch that the test vial water will turn green.
The live organisms in that sand are basically only the anaerobic bacteria that break down waste. Without oxygen, aerobic life will not survive in a sealed bag. I used the stuff, don't get me wrong, I like it. There is no rinsing that is needed, that dry sand requires. I only recommend it if you don't have any other means of getting cycled sand to seed your new sand.

 

well its been a week,no hermit crabs for me they stir it up really bad

but no ammonia nitrite and 20ppm nitrate but i dident have a skimmer running so im putting that on nutrient breakdown

 

It's a brand new setup, right?