did i kill my live sand?

[jubjubrsx]

.....ugh this sounds pretty stupid i know but.....im all worried now...

i have a 55gallon and i been filling it up with ro/di water its been taking a while....so i put all 30lbs of dead sand and 20 of live sand and started filling up...so a day later its almost full..i havent added any salt to the water yet......so its just fresh water still.....i should have it filled in the next few hours..... am i giong to have to buy another bag of live sand?


sorry for the noob question...

[stevelkaneval]

yes you killed the sand. you should always mix salt out of the tank.

[Rustylugnuts]

See if you can get a cup full of sand from another reefer if not buy the smallest bag of LS you can find.

[jubjubrsx]

ugh i was afraid of that....i wasnt thinking and just dumped it all in.....i know you should mix salt outside the tank but its the initial fill up..so was hoping just to dump all the water then add the salt after.....shrug oh well....we all make mistakes atleast the live sand one is a cheap mistake...ha!

[stevelkaneval]

i agree with rusty. instead of buying all new sand just get a cup of someones sand from their tank.

[Toddrtrex]

Yes, you did kill it, but that isn't a major issue.

Like said above, either get a cup of sand from a fellow reefer. If that isn't an option, don't worry about it. Your live rock will make your sand "live" over time.

I have never used live sand, and my sandbeds have plenty of life. Once in a while I will exchange a cup of sand with a fellow reefer just for diversity.

[onecrzyboi4u]

How do you know it's alive?

[jubjubrsx]

Originally posted by onecrzyboi4u
How do you know it's alive?

well the bag said live sand ....granted thats not saying much buttt....i guess when starting up for the very first time we all make some sort of mistakes....i can get a 10lbs bag for like 15bux.....so i might just do that..its a 55gal tank and i only put 50lbs of sand in.....and didnt put any in the fuge...maybe i could get the 10lbs, put half in the fuge and half in the display...

thanks everyone for the responses

[stevelkaneval]

was the sand wet or dry when you got it?

[jubjubrsx]

Originally posted by stevelkaneval
was the sand wet or dry when you got it?

the sand was very wet when i got it

[stevelkaneval]

yup it WAS livesand.

[MichaelRyanSd]

no biggy..just seed it with another tanks sand..and it will go live again...

[jubjubrsx]

well i got some more live sand....should i wait for my tank to cycle before putting it in this time or should i put it in now? the salinty is 1.023 and temp is 79.4F.....sorry for all the stupid question just dont wanna go buy more live sand again lol

[Deb91]

So you only have sand,no rock?

[jubjubrsx]

Originally posted by Deb91
So you only have sand,no rock?

i do have about 50-60lbs or so of semi live rock in the tank now....

[Deb91]

Yeah put your live sand in now.You just put the rock in today right?

[kydsexy]

and now you know

[jubjubrsx]

i put the rock in last nite...but close enough....hehehe.....thanks everyone...

[israelnajar]

I would stir your sand bed around. Since it may contain pockets of fresh water and you don't want that fresh to come out and drop your salinity.