Not your average sand bed question

[virginiadiver69]

I am in the process of building up a DSB. I am using mostly caribsea oolitic but want to add a portion of live sand. I live not to far from the Va. coast and am thinking of going to the beach with a shovel and a couple of rubbermaid buckets. This would be cheap and easy...so something tells me it is probably not a good idea. :lol: Any thoughts on this. If it is okay, how deep of water should I collect from?
P.S. most of the local reefers use BB or SB so please don't recommend "just get a cupful from an established tank".

 

[O'Man]

Watch out for pollution, though VA is pretty good. I would think you look for the particle size you want and scoop it up from an area beyond the tide line. I guess you go through it and remove any of the larger critters that you may not want.

 

[sir_dudeguy]

NOT a good idea for one thing, that sand on the beach wont even be live. For another, who knows what type of pollutants might be in the sand? I mean, a dog coulda peed right there :lol: But you could also get unwanted creatures too. I got the bad isopods w/big black eyes from doing something similar to what you're thinking of doing. I did it in rocky point tho, and luckily it was just a 2.5g tank that i put it in.

 

[virginiadiver69]

Thanks for the warning dude. Just to be clear though, I assumed I would at least need to collect from underwater, not ON the beach.

 

[sir_dudeguy]

ya, i knew what you mean I did the same thing. I went out to about shoulder height in the water (which was kinda scary cuz i had no flippers and the sand was falling out from under my feet lol. Not the greatest waves for walking out far in the water).

 

[virginiadiver69]

I kind of figured anything that was easy and cheap would not be a good idea. Unfortunately that applies to SO many things in life :lol: