free Sand

[ykp53]

Can I use sand gathered from the local beach to use as live sand in my s/w tank?

 

[bang guy]

I would recommend against it because of the high risk of contamination.

 

[ykp53]

what contamination would there be? could you just cycle it to make sure it safe?

 

[bang guy]

Suntan lotion, oil, metals, you name it - it has washed up on the beach.

 

[namas05]

Better to go with a good play sand low cost and at least it is not contaminated.
Kolorscape by old castle is a good one to use. Or also southdown.

 

[rara12]

If i go to the keys and collect sand from off shore is it safe???

 

[drose]

I think I heard somewhere once that if you take a boat far out offshore and dive down you can use that sand. Just do not use beach sand for the reasons given above.

 

[bang guy]

I agree.

 

[chipmaker]

When we lived in the pan handle area of the Gulf of Mex, we used top keep a local critters tank, and always used sand from the gulf that we collected right off the beach. It never gave any problems as far as we could tell from contaminants, but it did have a lot of undesireable things that came along with it.....but it was not a real problem. The thing is look at the waves when they come ashore. They hit and roll up on the beach......and on their way out they make foam, and it settles in and goes down through that region of sand .....that foam is nothing but aerated water and or protein......so junk on the usrface out in the water, tends to get carried in and deposited on the sand and filtered out, so your not really getting as good of sand as what you would really want, especially if yur gonna but fish etc and run the risk of a problem. Granted we did not have that problem from what we could tell but our tank at that time wa a locals collected tank and they were accustomed to the area there.
You may want to check on removing sand from the Keys or anywhere else in Florida as IIRC its considered natural fauna......won't swear to it though.