Live Sand From The Ocean....Should I or Shouldn't I?

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Ok... So I am installing a 59"x32"x27" starphire in my staircase with rear access through my pantry/laundry room/now a fish room ( its a pretty big room). Its got climate control and exterior ventalation already hooked up, but thats not the point. The point is that it has been about 2 years since I had my last reef and I got the itch.... I have all the equiptment, 2x400w halides, skimmer, reactor, pumps, a sh!t load of rock (will definately need more though), but I have a real problem spending hundreds of dollars on SAND. Especially since the beach is so close. Im not talking about galveston either. Home to oil stained brown beaches, green water, broken shells and syringes.... One of my friends jsut moved to Corpus Christi and got a place on the beach.....with plenty of space for visitors!!!! :D I had much rather spend that money on a variety of new coral to fill my new tank than the sand that sits on the bottom. Now I know that a large percentage of you guys would advocate the total elimination thereof.... I personally dont like the look of barebottoms as much as I like a nice sandy white bottom. Soooo, I am sure the primary concern with harvesting my own sand would be the importation of pestilence. My question is..... how big and/or realistic of a problem is this. Should I be concerned about anything else? I already have about a hundred pounds of black and white mix(dont ask) that I planed on using in my sump/fuge/whatever other bodies of water are behind the curtain, but it looks bad and looks increasingly worse the more white is added to it. O I had also planned on harvesting some saltwater mud for another little fuge, just to add some biodiversity to the system.... Any thoughts anyone?
 
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I dont know if this is what you were talking about, but I hadnt even considered getting dry beach sand and seeding it. Sifting through it to get out all those pennies of course :)
 
My 90 and my boss' 300 both use live sand from the Keys exclusively. I've never had any problems.

It makes me chuckle when someone starts screaming that a screw on a pump is rusting........There's flakes of the stuff all over in my sand. Some glass too......No pennies as of yet.........

I wouldn't hesitate to use sand collected from the wild.
 
Of course buying sand would be the safest, longest route to take. But I am wondering if anyone has acutally used ocean havrested sand with negative or positive results. Seems like a few years back I read on here about a kiwi or an aussie that collected his whole tank from the ocean and even did his water changes with the ocean. I am not new to this site as my post count indicates. I just forgot that old password and the email account was closed sometime back. I hadnt had to type it in like 6-7 years I dont think. Comp just logged me in automatically.
 
I have used sand and water from the wild. Make sure you have the right type of sand on your beaches. It should look just like what comes in the bags. Pull wet sand.
 
I have never seen any white sand at home depot. I know there was discussion a while back about the northeast having nice white sand at hd, but I dont recall it being called high desert play sand.... cant remember, but it could have been. I think down here in TX, we only have tan(yuck), red and black. The red and black are both crushed volcanic rock and dyed those colors.... The red at least.... dunno about the black. But volcanic rock floats. I can only imagine what the tank would look like with a few bags of that in there! Ill check out HD tomorrow to confirm. I need to shop for some patio building supplies anyway.
 
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Remember that the beach is nature's "protein skimmer", so take this into consideration when using beach sand, it may not be the healthiest for your aquarium.
 
I was actually planning on going out into the ocean and collecting the sand from there. I dont mean take a boat, but swim about 20-30 yards out, the dive down with a bucket. Hadnt decided which would be the easiest way to collect it and bring it back to shore.... I have considered a few different methods. Including walmart bags of sand tied to funoodles. I think 1 bucket at a time is the way to go. I just wanna make sure I get enough. Ill probably get a cooler full and a plastic storage bin full....and about 10 gallons of mud too.
 
Bump for the possibility of gaining more knowledge. I didnt end up going to HD.... Life has been full throttle. Birthday was on Sept 1 and my sobriety birthday is today. Good times.
 
i live in souther n cali and tried beach sand once. didn't like it, too fine and not the color i wanted. i waded out into the water to collect it. but i didn't have any other problems.
 
go for it

go for it

I have been using beach sand for 30 years with no problem, i recommend only collecting it from small untrafficed beaches and then from an area where the sand is always submerged, it will be live sand but not super live as it will be after several months at the bottom of your tank. I uae only wild sand and ocean water as it is available, if i had a pet smart close by i might be lazy and buy premixed water
but free is always better. Collect it in buckets 3/4 full and swill your hand arround
in the sand while it is full of sea water, all the debris will float if there is any.
Drain off the water and head home. It also helps to collect it from somewhere you can
get the truck pretty close too, wet sand is heavy!!!!
 
might be seasonal at hd, i'd ask . fine sugar/white sand . it's pavestone high desert playsand. for some reason i think pavestone is in texas.
 
You guys rock. I really appreciate the feedback. Thanks for the tip on sand collection as well!

block head: I dunno about the company, but I know HD sells all manner of Pavestone products, as their prefab concrete stone bricks cost me a couple grand to do the landscaping in my front yard.... You tend to remember that kinda thing :)
 
i used live sand from the ocean in mexico...water also! then added species form hawaii...they did amazing and are all still doing amazing
 
Glad to hear it! That is a resounding 4-0 at this point. I am begining to feel pretty confident that a vacation could actually save me money. Lovin it. $80 in gas = $300-$500 in sand!!
 
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