Beach Sand for an Aquarium

[ucdpike2001]

I have been looking for southdawn for months but it is impossible to find in california. I am now thinking of just taking fine sand from a local beach. Has anyone ever done anything like this? I am sure ill have to clean the sand and take out any mipurities.

 

[smokinstarfish]

Some places have laws against that. You will also have no way of knowing what's in that sand. There might be little particles of metal.
Surely, there must be aragonite/Southdown for sale in California.

 

[ucdpike2001]

they have aragonite but it is still pretty pricey. i am looking to get 250lbs of sand so i was looking for some less expensive method. i would really like to use southdown but it is impossible to find. i have been looking for it for 3 months.

 

[buzz]

Southdown on the West Coast will run you about $15/bag. It is not quite the deal it is on the East Coast.
For around $16-$18/bag, you can get Caribsea Aragamax in varied grains. Not much of a price increase if you can't find SD.

 

[ucdpike2001]

thanks for the suggestion but Caribsea Aragamax is sold in 30lb bags instead of the 50lb of southdown. so its actually almost double the price. im kinda straped for cash so im just trying to find the best quality for the price.

 

[shanev]

do a search for pureargonite

 

[beaslbob]

Originally posted by ucdpike2001
thanks for the suggestion but Caribsea Aragamax is sold in 30lb bags instead of the 50lb of southdown. so its actually almost double the price. im kinda straped for cash so im just trying to find the best quality for the price.
then why not use play sand from home depot? it is $3.00 for 50#. Could use the expensive stuff for the top 1/2 inch or so.

 

[buzz]

The 30lb fine grain bags were about $16, and the larger grain, 40 lb bags were $18. Not much difference.
SD can be found, but you have to be patient, and really hunt around.

 

[nm reef]

I would be very cautious about using sand from any beach...there is no way of telling what it may contain. The beach is basically the oceans skimmer cup and all the crap the ocean pukes out will be found along beachs. That doesn't even take into account what humans deposit on the beachs with no regard for possible damage.
I have seen hobbiests discuss southdown on the west coast...I'd suggest checking with LFS's and see if they have knowledge of customers having SD available. Folks out there have been known to purchase pallets at a time and sell it out of their homes. There are other sources for quality sand...even the play sand mentioned above will work. Personally I prefer a combination of CaribSea aragonite sands...but if SD was available here I'd readily use it.

 

[terminus est]

If you can dive, I suggest going offshore about 4 or 5 miles and getting sand from the bottom there. It wont contain as much bad stuff. You can also dredge it if you cant dive. No suggestions as to how though. Home depot sells sand for about 3 bucks for a 50 pound bag of play sand. It isnt aragonite and doesnt help buffer the water but otherwise its the same. And regardless of the nay sayers, studies have been done proving that silicate sand(home depot playsand) has no ill effects on algae growth. Any thing said about it being bad is pretty much just old wives tales and outdated.

 

[starfishjackedme]

the only thing bad about it is that it looks like poop. There's not much attractive about a brown sand bed.

 

[smokinstarfish]

Silicate sand should come in white also.

 

[reeferdude]

I used beach sand from cancun in one of my 10 gallon reef tanks, only 2 problems is that I get a very strange type of algae growing on my glass and rocks and every once in a while i find a cigarette butt in my sandbed.

 

[bdhough]

I'm sure in cali taking sand from the beach is quite illegal. It would definitely not suprise me.

 

[rbmount]

do a search for southdown, someone,i believe it was dacia,posted the sku numbers from home depot so you get the right sand.