Should I Use Dry Sand or Live Sand in my Marine Aquarium? - Budget or Convenience?

Welcome to Simple Reefs, a website dedicated to making setting up your own marine aquarium simple and affordable. We are currently talking, quite a lot, about the subject of sand in a marine aquarium. We recently discussed the pros and cons of having a sand bed. As well as the differences between Dry Sand and Live Sand so check those articles out if you need to catch up. Today we are answering a simple question. Should I Use Dry Sand or Live Sand?

This is one of those subjects without concrete answer because a lot of it is personal preference. I relate this type of query to my own experience with fixing cars. I love to work on my own cars. I work from home building websites so have spare time to dedicate to car maintenance. My friend often laments not being able to work on his cars, himself. The way I look at it, however, is that the free time I have is the currency I would prefer to spend. He has less free time so would prefer to pay someone to fix his car… Or have me do it for him.

The same applies to subjects like Live Rock and Live Sand in marine aquarium ownership. Do you extra cash to spend or can you afford to be a little more patient? If you are financially able to spend more money, then live sand is the way to go. If you want to save money, then dry sand is the correct option. Both have their pros and cons.

Live Sand is an Expensive Shortcut

Live Sand offers some fantastic benefits if you can afford to pay for it. It comes at a steep premium but starting your aquarium with live sand will afford you a diverse range of bacteria that will benefit your aquarium for years to come. Bacteria that will rapidly multiply and spread across your aquarium. Bringing the rocks and surfaces to life. Live Sand also comes with the benefit of reducing the impact of the dreaded ugly stage. Due to the surface of the sand already being taken up by bacteria. It is less likely to find itself playing host to different types of algae.

Live sand also comes free of any pests or undesirable aquarium residents. Many types of live sand promise no Silica which is a big plus point as it will reduce the presence of those dusty brown nuisance algae known as diatoms that use silicates to build their glass homes. Live Sand will, also, aid in water stability thanks to the leeching of calcium to help keep your PH levels in check for the lifetime of the tank.

The problem is, it is very expensive. Live Sand costs over double the price of dry sand so you are paying a big premium for those benefits. If you want a 2 inch sand bed in a 4 foot aquarium that is going to cost a lot of money. If you have the spare cash, then I can’t make a decent argument not to go with live sand and, simply, jump start your aquarium in the best way possible. Check out our article on Live Sand right here.

Dry Sand Saves Lots of Money

If you are wanting to save money and don’t mind waiting a little longer for your aquarium to mature. Dry Sand is, absolutely, the best way to go. It costs less than half the price of live sand and comes with many of the same benefits. Dry Sand will still provide a perfect home for sand swelling aquarium residents. It will still help with PH stabilisation through leeching of calcium. It will still provide a massive surface area for the growth of beneficial bacteria and it still looks fantastic. Coming in all the same colours and grades as live sand.

The downsides to dry sand are all things that require patience. It needs rinsing, for one, something we cover in depth in this article, as it arrives very dirty. It contains no beneficial bacteria or organisms so we need to make it live using bottled bacteria or live rock. A process which takes weeks to get started and months to fully play out. The sand will likely contain silica meaning you will experience the dusty brown algae known as diatoms as the silica leeches from the sand. This won’t last for long, though, and can even act as a reassuring sign that your tank is beginning to mature and come to life.

You may see an uglier “Ugly” stage. The sand, having no bacteria living on its surface, will be free real estate for algae. Algae will take up home on the sand’s surface quicker than bacteria. Meaning your sand will be messy for awhile. This will pass, though, within a few months. All the negatives with dry sand simply mean that you need to be patient. It will all pass and, in the long run, you will have saved a ton of money and that’s what we are all about on Simple Reefs. Keeping things easy and saving you money.

A Mix of Dry Sand and Live Sand

This is the forbidden Jutsu of starting a marine aquarium with a sand bed and it is something I have done on a few occasions. I have purchased both live sand and dry sand. Placing a bed of dry sand down first before topping it off with the live sand. This, in turn, means the bacteria from the live sand will reproduce and spread into the dry sand faster than it would with just bottled bacteria that may prioritise sticking to the rocks.

For me, this worked pretty well. Would I recommend it? I am not sure. I think it is an expensive option and, while you get some of the benefits of live sand, you still get a lot of the negatives of dry sand. I still experienced a lot of diatoms from the dry sand leeching silica and it is difficult to measure how much the live sand sped up the process of my dry sand becoming live.

If you do this, I would suggest going for a 50/50 mix of live sand and dry sand to minimise the negatives. Otherwise, it is a bit of a waste of time and money. If you are still having the negatives of dry sand, you might as well go in both feet first and just used dry sand with a bottle of bacteria to make it live. Again, we are going to show you how to do this in an upcoming article.

Dry Sand vs Live Sand

With all of this being said, the decision boils down to two answers. If you have a lot of money and are fine with spending a little more to speed things up, go with live sand. If you are lacking money or, simply, trying to keep things as affordable as possible while being okay with exercising patience when it comes to cycling. Go with dry sand.

The only major benefit of live sand is that it acts as a short cut to a mature tank and cuts out some unwanted algae growth. The major benefit of dry sand is it is far more affordable. Thanks for reading!