Free Shopping at the Beach

jedchuah

jedchuah

New Member
Krusk,jakepilot and all others,
I set out over the weekend to the beach and collected some fine sand to make my DSB bed.Due to my impatience I slowly half-emptied in my tank
without washing it first. I now got some foam on my water surface plus cloudy tank!
I think I'll prewash it for the other half. Will it help if I first half empty the water to faciltate loading the sand avoid the cloudiness?
Secondly, I caught some some crwlies that come out
in the burrow of the beach sand..I wasn't sure whether these are hermits (forgive my ignorance!)
Some died on the way, some while in the tank.
Not sure what happen to the rest?
Did I get the right thing?
Unfortunately, this site doen't ship clean up crew to my part of the world. Do you know of any
nearer my home willing to do it?
Thanks
of the world
 
noodle

noodle

Member
well. It isn't good just to grab sand off the beach. POLUTANTS KILL. I don't know how the water is in Maylasia but i wouldn't suggest it
 
saltylake

saltylake

Member
you should never grab anything straight from the ocean and add it to your tank. What happens everytime you go to the beach? A beach is full of sea weed and other rocks that wash ashore. Also some pollutants becuase the waves push everthing towards the beaches. This means that the water and sand around the beaches always have a higher level of pollutants than the water and sand removed from the ocean miles away from the beaches. I would reccomend spending the money, because it will insure that your sand and water are free of disease and animals that may harm your fish and corals.
 
saltylake

saltylake

Member
you should never grab anything straight from the ocean and add it to your tank. What happens everytime you go to the beach? A beach is full of sea weed and other rocks that wash ashore. Also some pollutants becuase the waves push everthing towards the beaches. This means that the water and sand around the beaches always have a higher level of pollutants than the water and sand removed from the ocean miles away from the beaches. I would reccomend spending the money, because it will insure that your sand and water are free of disease and animals that may harm your fish and corals.
 
saltylake

saltylake

Member
you should never grab anything straight from the ocean and add it to your tank. What happens everytime you go to the beach? A beach is full of sea weed and other rocks that wash ashore. Also some pollutants becuase the waves push everthing towards the beaches. This means that the water and sand around the beaches always have a higher level of pollutants than the water and sand removed from the ocean miles away from the beaches. I would reccomend spending the money, because it will insure that your sand and water are free of disease and animals that may harm your fish and corals.
 
nacl-h2o

nacl-h2o

Active Member
You shouldn't ever put anything from the beach in your tank. You run the risk of adding pollutants, nitrates, annoying and or harmful pest, infectious agents, and or parasites.
 
dad

dad

Active Member
I really suggest you start over!
Getting the sand from the beach was not a good idea.
You said you had foam? I think this is natures skimmer! Not good!
I would really suggest you start over, ;0
 
krusk

krusk

Member
hmm,
add sand beach to the aquarium is a dangerous thing to do.
I'm not sure why you want to get beach sand seen you have uncured live sand off shore
If I was you I collect some uncured live sand,
cured them and add to the tank
How to cure livesand/liverock? well there are many posts on this bb show you have to do so.
as for the hermit crab gose, I don't think it is a problem if you are collect them from the beach as long as you wash them with sea water.
again, to the best of my knowledge upto this point, invert are not transfer any deseases from the wild to aquarium.
start over is the wise thing to do seen you just start to add sand in the aquarium.
I too rush on my first aquarium, I failed then read then research ...
I beleived most of us here have that mistake when we are setting up our first aquarium
Take it slow, good luck
 
fishymissy

fishymissy

Member
These hermits (or other crabs) you collected, are they the kind that live ON the beach? (On the sand out of the water.) Because if they are, they will not survive being placed underwater! There are several species of hermits/crabs that don't live in the water, just as there are several species that do.....never mix the 2 up.
It is quite possible to collect sand for your tank, but it would be best to collect the sand from under the water, not at the waters edge. Different fauna live in different situations. At the waters edge you get critters that need extremely high oxygen levels and the surge and ebb of the water, while in the underwater sand you have critters used to the conditions there. One important thing to remember about collecting is to follow any laws that may apply in your area, and collect away from any boat docks, the mouth of rivers or streams, drainage ditches, or any area that has heavy human traffic.
Adding sand to any tank will make it cloudy, and the foam at the top, well, try and scoop out as much as you can with a bowl or something. Wipe the inside (along the waterline) down with towels or napkins. I would also take the precaution of running some carbon in your filter for a couple of days, then change it out.
If it was me, I would take the rest of the sand back to the beach and get some from under the water to use. If you decide to rinse this sand, then it would be a good idea to use saltwater to do so, that way the life in there will not be killed off.
Good luck! :D
 
jedchuah

jedchuah

New Member
Fishmissy,
I'm not sure which hermits I got-
Since it was during low tide-They could
be the ones that live in water.
But its been a day already-and I saw movements
in the sand. Do they always hide in the sand and come out occasionaly? But if they are still alive
after 24 hrs submerged they must be the right ones
right?
Abt the sand, again it was during low tide- it was quite a distance from the beach. But the ones
at the beach looked more tempting. So I got both.
I hear suggestions to start all over again-does it
mean dig eveything out again?
This is so confusing!
Anyway thanks everyone for input!
 
krusk

krusk

Member
if I remember it correctly, you have a 30 G tank
what do you have in the tank so far? how long is it take you to set up?
 
fishymissy

fishymissy

Member
I don't know about the crabs, all the hermits I've ever seen don't bury themselves in the sand. Are these fiddler crabs? I would keep an eye on them just to be on the safe side.
If the sand you got was from sand normally underwater, then you should be fine (with regards to the life in it). Are you running the filter in your tank? That will help with the cloudiness too.....
What else do you have in this tank?
Even though others have brought up a good point about pollutants, if you are careful where you collect, the sand you use should be fine. Heck, I can take sand from right here in Tampa Bay and it will be fine if I am careful where exactly I take it from!
 
cowfish

cowfish

Member
about the sand it all depands on if your tank is going to be a shpw reef or a local reef
i have both 55gallon shw and a 30 gallon long lacal i got the rock and the sand from the beach acually at the end of our jetiies i go scuba divin out there but i keep the sand in the tank aone for about 7 months and then started to get fish from the beach
 
jakepilot

jakepilot

Member
Hey, well im sure by now you have praub read the above recomendations not to put sand from the beach in your tank, the reason is this, the beach is kind of one big protein skimmer, the foam from the waves remove alot of crud from the water, with this crud comes alot of boat waste and other poulutiants (sp) anyway, i go off shore around 5-10 miles when i get beach sand and dive down to get it, if your diving certified or you have a friend that is, great..it saves money, as for the animals that you pick up, make sure that the crabs can be submersed 100% of the time in the water before you stick them in the tank, there are a few species that need land and air...btw horse shoe crabs are actually spiders, they have 8 legs and are in the aracknoids faimly fyi, anyway good luck...oh yea, i do sometimes put shells in my tank from the beach, BUT i bleach them first then VERY THROUGHLY wash them off--jake
 
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