Beach Sand

[bab]

I live in a clean costal area of australia, not many people live in the area and there are close to no tourists, I am thinking of using sand and some crushed shells for the bottom matter in my aquarium. The sand is virtually untouched and im sure there is no or very very little pollution on the beach, would it be safe/beneficial to use this? and how would i go about treating the sand?

 

[ak_reefer]

I would say not to put the sand and crushed shell from the beach in your aquarium. There are many elements, polluntants, etc in the sand and crushed coral that would not be good for a home aquarium. It would be like taking water from the ocean and putting it in your aquarium too many unknown impurities. HTH

 

[steamboat1569]

I seen a show on the discovery channel that talked about the beaches and the roll they play in the world stage. Evidently the beaches of the world are the ocean's filtering system. This where contaminates are filtered out. There are many many beach loving animals that act like our sand beds. They break down the contaminates in much the same way.
Being that this is the case, that would make beach sand a bit on the hazzardous side, in my own oppinion. There are many other contaminates in seawater besides pollution.

 

[ocellaris_keeper]

Bab,
the real issue is whether there are contaminants in/on the sand. I would use nothing I can walk on - recommend you tak a boat out about 3 miles and send a bucket to the bottom - this is more than likely safe sand.
The last thing you want to do is introduce something like a petroleum based pollutant into your sand bed. this would kill everything and ruin your tank and make you real unhappy.

 

[kev]

The sand in my tank is from the beach. While I was in Destin, FL, I picked up enough sand to make my sand bed. I even brought back this cool looking snail that stays burried the whole time. When I brought the sand back to good ole Texas, I kept it damp and all the critters in the sand stayed alive. As of now, my nitrates are 0, and the little snail is still alive. I know everybody says your not supposed to do this, and I'm in no way reccomending that anyone do this. Point is, I did it and I didn't have any problems at all. I even think I got a better quality of sand then the LFS(grain wise.)

 

[bab]

the sand I was thinking of using is virtually untouched, its beautiful sand and looks so much better than the stuff in Ifs, clean and white it would come from just south of the great barrier reef where hundreds of saltwater fish live so i figured it would be very aquarium safe, but i wouldn't know how to go about treating it and the beaches being filtration for the ocean really has put me using the sand.

 

[rhomer]

Here's an idea. Get as much of the sand you want from the beach, and don't worry about it staying alive. When you get it home, rinse it well with fresh water then let the sand dry out. After it's dried rinse it again with fresh water, and use that as a base sand if you want a dsb. After you placed this in the tank purchase 20 lbs of live sand from the lfs and put that on top. I would guess this would be a way for you to get a nice looking sand, and still remain fairly safe.