To be perfectly honest most of the "live sand" that is sold online or around here is really dead sand that has been in a batch of old sand for a couple of weeks. In short it is dead sand with water. What I would do is do 3/4 dead/dry sand and the other quarter have donated by other people. I would be willing to give up a little of my sand and i am sure if you asked alot more people on this site would do the same. This way you would end up with real live sand and not a farse by someone who is just in this hobby for the money. I am not saying in anyway that all places do this I just know of quite a few that I have seen directly do this.