DARB

I just perches some live sand at my LFS and the way the handled there stuff I thought was pretty cool. They had all the live sand the crushed coral kind in a huge tank with a big tumbler and power heads in there. They then scooped it right out of there and put it in a bag of there water. I don't know if that is normal but I was impressed and at $3-lbs not bad. For the live rocks they put there fully cured rock in a Styrofoam container full of salt water.
I was happy with my service.

cerianthus

I dont know!
Although I dont believe in Packaged Live Sand w/ Expiration Date but $3/lb?

Maybe homemade live sand and paying for the weight of water. If you have sand and add Uncured/Cured LR, your sand will become LS given enough time.

I dont know the price of packaged Live sand now but I would rather order from place where they will ship overnight. i'll say this may be true so called LS with critters.

When you say Styro/ S/W, do you mean the way they pack your LR purchased?

DARB

Yes that is the way they packaged it for me. And the live sand was shiped to them from the reef than put in to the tumblers then sold.