'Live' sand

[mdugly]

I got some bagged live sand from LFS.
It was pricey and wasn't sure if it would be worth the cost.

I 'cycled' the sand with new water in a new tank.
Things came to life - very small, but still life.
After about 3 weeks I noticed about 10 small snails on the glass.
Took a while to grow so I could ID, but turns out they are ceriths 
And more keep coming... at least 30 so far.

Did I get lucky with a 'good' bag ? Or have others had similar experience ?

[Julie]

Amazing, I really didn't think it was live in the bag to any degree.  Must have been eggs possibly?

[groan]

nothing else in the tank? Live Rock i mean?
weird. I know that bags of sand comes with a pouch to 'activate' the sand and probably contains a colony of some bacteria, but the only snails i had ws off my rocks and were just tiny things that never got bigger than a few millimeters.

[kennyman]

That would definitely change my opinion of the stuff if it were the case!

[Funkmotor]

Is this the CaribSea Arag-Alive stuff?

I bought some of that a while back and it sat in a tank by itself for a couple months...I never saw anything come out of it other than algae.

I'm not saying it's bad...but I never saw any critters come out of it.

[mdugly]

It was the caribsea stuff.  There is a sticker stating where the sand is from.
Can't remember which ones I got, but selected 3 different origins for diversity.
(they all had several months left before expiring)

They did come with pouches labeled 'bio-magnet clarifier' - but did not use them.
Did not rinse the sand either - used straight out of the bag.

Other than a canister filter (but was stored clean/dry for months prior) it was a new/sterile setup.
Was next to the DT, so possible contamination from that, but I think that unlikely.
 
In this particular case, pretty sure the sand was indeed alive as advertised...
Sure, the ceriths are a bonus, but there was also other life present too.