local beach sand

[Mikeyp1055]

Has anyone ever just gone to the beach and grab a few buckets from there to use in their tank? What would the pros and cons be to using it?

 

[waytall]

Great question. Im interested in this as well. Would imagine that there would be some contamination off the beach though. I think You would have to head offshore and find clean stuff

 

[CrypticLifeStyle]

I did when setting up a tank 4-5 weeks ago. So far so good, i did it at low tide right in the waters edge, and used my hands to scoop it to avoid getting any pebbles or anything else for that matter. Since i'm new to the reef scene i cant comment more on a technical aspect, but the tank sure did cycle fast paired with a lot of live rock. I asked the same question before doing it after reading on the net to do it off shore, but members here said i would be ok so i did. I did notice a couple tiny baby crabs though a week ago i had to catch that must of been in the sand. That was the only negative thus far i'm aware of. I like the grain size too.

 

[dsscubasarge]

Now's a good time to do it to, as there are no beach goers this time of year to contaminate it with sun block oils and such.

 

[Mikeyp1055]

Kind of what I was thinking as I was working along Revere Beach at 3am... lol

 

[Turbosnail]

Local sand is silica based sand which may cause some dinos and elevated phosphates. The live sand most of us use is calcium based sand.

 

[Trevor]

I used hampton beach sand in my tank and its been going for about 5 months now with no negative affects

 

[cilyjr]

Local sand is silica based sand which may cause some dinos and elevated phosphates. The live sand most of us use is calcium based sand.

I heard an expert on a reef threads podcast state this is a big myth of the hobby. That silica based sands are inert