Calling all aquarists-->Live Sand?

[Mendel's Balls]

Does anyone know where I can a small amount of Live Sand (LS) for a decent price ? I don't need very much--only gram quantities of it...seems like alot of places sell it in bulk or not at all?

[Wild Bill]

I don't think you will find it gram quantities. Even enough for a very small aquarium would be at least a 1 lb.

[Mendel's Balls]

I don't think you will find it gram quantities. Even enough for a very small aquarium would be at least a 1 lb.

Thanks Bill....how much is reasonable price for 1 lb? What's the self-life of it?

I dont need it for aquarium....I need it for an experiment I'm trying to setup for my students.

Ideally, I'd like to try a couple of different brands (is there more than one reputable brand?) in trail runs of the experiment before I give it to them.

[Wild Bill]

Thanks Bill....how much is reasonable price for 1 lb? What's the self-life of it?

I dont need it for aquarium....I need it for an experiment I'm trying to setup for my students.

Ideally, I'd like to try a couple of different brands (is there more than one reputable brand?) in the trail run of the experiment.

I really don't think you can order anything to be shipped less than 10 lbs. It really doesnt have a good "shelf life". It essentially needs to be in a setup to be used rather quickly, the beneficial bacteria will quickly die and make it useless if it sits. I dont know which brands are good anymore, you just want to make sure it is fresh and shipped still wet or damp. Some companies will sell "Live" sand dried out and warehoused, it is nothing more than plain sand at that point. If i remmeber right it usually runs anywhere from 2-4 dollars a pound, your best bet is to find a local saltwater fish store and see if they have any.

[Mendel's Balls]

I really don't think you can order anything to be shipped less than 10 lbs. It really doesnt have a good "shelf life". It essentially needs to be in a setup to be used rather quickly, the beneficial bacteria will quickly die and make it useless if it sits. I dont know which brands are good anymore, you just want to make sure it is fresh and shipped still wet or damp. Some companies will sell "Live" sand dried out and warehoused, it is nothing more than plain sand at that point. If i remmeber right it usually runs anywhere from 2-4 dollars a pound, your best bet is to find a local saltwater fish store and see if they have any.

There's a couple places around here..I'll check them out...thanks again for the info!

[TheAudOne]

I'm sure some salt water stores around you should have it, we used tobuy it in bulk for our saltwater tanks, although I think the smallest our place sold was about 10 pounds maybe 5 pounds. What are you and your students going to do with it???

[Mendel's Balls]

I'm hoping to use it in a Catalysis of Hydrogen Peroxide Decompostion Experiment......2H202-->2H20 + O2(g)

I want them to compare biological and inorganic catalysts. For the biological catalyst I'm planning on using the enzyme Catalase from Potato or Liver Extract. They'll be measuring the formation of oxygen gas using a gas pressure sensor. So far I've blend some potatoes with ice and ice water and tired that part of the experiment and it works great!

For an inorganic catalyst...they'll use MnO2 (Maganese Dioxide). I also wanted to include sand and live sand and maybe one other substance that with no known catalytic/reactive properties for this reaction.

My idea is not to tell them whether MnO2 powder, sand, live sand, etc are inorganic catalyst, enzymes, or nothing at all....they have to design an experiements to determine whether each unkown substance is a catalyst and whether it is biological or inorganic.

Essentially, they'll have to recall that enzymes are fragile and can be destroyed (denatured) by high temps. The inorganic- Mn02 will not denature!

Since regular sand is often very different....I'm not sure if it will catalyze the reaction or not......it might depend on the source.

I was interested in Live Sand because some of the microorganisms in it may be positive for catalase. The students would see a decrease in catalytic activity with very high temps because the catalase would denature. I think this would be a nice surprising result for them and teach them not to rely so much on just their vision.....they'd see that sometimes superficial appearance arent enough...u have to do the experiment.

Kind of confusing I know and when I talk about it in class I probably inevitablility mix up the word catalyst with catalase.....sometimes practical naming isnt science's strongest suit!

I dont know if this idea will pan out or not....we'll see.

Thanks all for the help and interest.

[jglass38]

Not cheap but here is some:

http://www.saltwaterfish.com/site_11...ory=0&x=5&y=14

I have ordered from this site a few times and like them a lot. I don't do Saltwater anymore as it was just too expensive. Always money to spend...


Also: http://www.intmarinefish.com/liverock.html

[Mendel's Balls]

Not cheap but here is some:

http://www.saltwaterfish.com/site_11...ory=0&x=5&y=14

I have ordered from this site a few times and like them a lot. I don't do Saltwater anymore as it was just too expensive. Always money to spend...


Also: http://www.intmarinefish.com/liverock.html

Not cheap is right.....since this will be coming out of my pocket as a grad student/student teacher (very close to being a slave) I have to try to find something around here I guess. Thanks for the link though it maybe useful in the future!

[Schlyne]

Definately hunt through your local stores. Both the petco and the petland here sell live sand.