live sand

[bluefintuna]

has anyone ever used the live sand from the local beaches? if so were there any problems?

 

[orb]

there's no way i would use it, too many polutants. if you REALLY wanted to collect sand, i'd suggest going a few miles out and collect it. if you could close the container before coming thru the top layer of water, you'd be even better off. you may need to dry it afterwards to kill off anything living in it-good or bad. but me, i'd stay away and just use playsand.

 

[rdmpe]

I know that there are things in the sand at some beaches that you don't want. There are these digging things that would eat the good stuff in your sand. I can't remember what they're called but based on that, I wouldn't do it.

 

[bluefintuna]

thanks guys, I knew it was too good to be true.

 

[daywn]

i got a friend that got some from a beach and he boiled it and then rinsed it.his tanks been up for about six months with no problems.seems like alot of work to me.

 

[DaveG99]

When I started my tank I went to the banana river in cocoa and got my sand from there. It was a grey colored sand and it worked fine for about a month or two until I decided I wanted white sand so I bought some aragonite sand and covered it. I had the sand I collected in my tank until I took the tank down and set up my 125 gallon. If your going to collect sand I would get it from under the water and not out on the beach.

 

[cschweitzer]

Isn't that illegal anyway?