Using sand from nearby beach

[phixer]

Will be living near a beach for the next few years. With the cost of live sand, Im wondering if it would be safe to collect the sand from the beach for use in a tank or if I would be taking a risk potentially introducing parasites? Is the live sand purchase in the LFS cultured and then sold? it has to come from the sea at one point in time right? What is the main difference between beach sand and live sand purchased in the LFS?

 

[coachklm]

:thinking: ive never stepped on a beer bottle inside a bag from the LFS your choice though many many many pollutants......

 

[zman1]

Originally Posted by coachKLM
:thinking: ive never stepped on a beer bottle inside a bag from the LFS your choice though many many many pollutants......

However, I found a broken piece of beer bottle and rusty nail in bags of Pukka Shells while making DYI rock. Just because it's in a bag doesn't make it pristine in my experience...

 

[phixer]

Obviously Id check for visible objects, like beer bottles or cigarette butts. Have an old stainless steel 5 gallon pot and propane burner from when I used to brew beer. Could probably use this to boil and sterilze the sand thus killing any parasites. More than likely the pre-packaged stuff was sterilized this way before it was cultured with bacteria anyhow. Was checking some prices for live sand and the cost of 40 LBS of sand isn't cheap considering this is just sand. Especially when one could just go down to the beach with a couple of plastic trash cans and get as much as you want for free. Just thinking.
Phixer

 

[bonebrake]

Boiling will not do anything for any nasty chemicals that may be in it. Buy live sand on here or aragonite at home depot or a little of both. Do not use beach sand, the risk is not worth it.
:joy:

 

[phixer]

Good point, I didnt consider the chemical contaminates

some chemicals will not be removed by distillation. Coral can be safely cleaned and using chlorine bleach providing its completely rinsed prior to use. Sand contains many different materials other than just silica which isnt very porus and could be washed free of chemicals, its the other stuff that might be harder to clean.
How do the vendors sterilize sand prior to packaging it and selling it? :notsure:

 

[zman1]

I am sure after they dredge it up, conveyor belt it, drop it into a bag and then hermetically sealed it. Wait, with local wages, they may just dredged up and shovel it into a bag, seal and ship. Or is it just shovel and bag on the beach....
You can mold crap into many different shapes, but when you're done, it's still a pile of crap.

 

[socal57che]

It's fairly common for surfers here get Hep C from surfing in sewage. I wouldn't throw the sand we have here in someones eyes even if I hated thier guts. I collect cool shells and rocks from the beach and bleach them before they go in the tank. If you collect sand from the beach then bleach it or distil it all you really have is a pile of sand. I'd buy dry sand and wash it then seed it with some live stuff from a friend. One guy at a LFS even told me he wouldn't be surprised if every bag of live sand contained absolutely no living organisms whatsoever. He said the stuff may be shipped by truck through the Rockies during a blizzard or sit in a storeroom at 120 degrees for weeks on end. He said that without knowing every place that bag of sand had been he wouldn't guarantee it was alive at all. He felt the same way about cycle and the likes. His live rock, on the other hand, he did know where it came from and the route it took to get to him. (airports,etc.) He says buy cheap sand and let the rock seed it.
My 2 cents plus a nickel or so.

 

[murph]

Considering how some LFS do business it would not surprise me if there LS was sand collected right off the beach if there store was within driving distance.
Premium sand however is collected off sand bottom usually no less than 15 miles off shore out past the dead zones created by runoff in proximity to human populations. You are no doubt taking a chance using material collected near shore. Just to give you an idea take a water sample and test it with your kit. The water in Sarasota ICW and off the beach test positive for ammonia believe it or not. These are water samples collected in the passes to boot, where literally millions of gallons are flushed in and out of the gulf on an hourly basis.
Sarasota county claims there is no sewage run off into the ICW/Gulf of Mexico but it does not take an Einstein to figure out they are either lying or have run off they are unaware of. You would think the instant bacterial bloom/red tide appearance as soon as the water reaches 75 degrees each spring would tip them off but apparently not.
On a side not I have a ten gallon tank right now set up and running with wet sand, macros and rock I collected near shore (shhhh, I am not so sure about the legality of this). Its been running for a couple of weeks. Levels have stabilized and I will probably introduce a small Damsel/Guinea pig to it this weekend. My results will be purely anecdotal and more Dependant on luck than anything else but the eventual plan is to move my shroom colonies to this tank if all goes well and treat it as a nano from that point forward.
One good thing about this sand that I collected off the beach is it is far more "live" than any LFS sand I have ever seen. It is packed with worms coquina and pods. Whether this life is beneficial by aquarium standards is something I will soon learn.

 

[chipmaker]

I have used sand I collected myself from the beach in the Florida pan handle for years and never had a problem, however depending on what type of sand it is you may be dissappointed. Lots of beach sand is more quartz/silicate type than carbonate /aragonite type, so its not going to be as beneficial overall to the tank, other than prooviding a cover for the tank bottom for the most part.....I will say the sand I collected and used was all setup in a tank usuing the SW fromthe ocean there as well, but what we kept in that tank was locally caught critters. If I was spending money on store bought critters etc, I would definately shy away from lcoal sand or water period. Its a chance anyway you look at it.

 

[firedog]

Something else to keep in mind. As one person noted, it may not be legal to take sand from the beach, nor rock. I understand that collecting live rock off of FLA is illegal. I have also read that collecting the black sand from HI is also illegal. I don't live in either of these places, so someone else may be more familiar with the laws there.
Also, it would seem that the shores serve as protein skimmers for the ocean. Hence the foam on the beach.

 

[mullet2]

I tried beach sand in my first tank. It was my first mistake.

Although it may work in some parts of the world, it didn't on St. Simons Isl. Ga. All kinds of bad characters came out to play! :scared:

 

[judyk]

It depends on where and when you are getting the sand. Alot of people, myself included have used it. Locally they post bacteria counts daily. As far as polution, I'm not sure about hand lotion, perfume, aerosol sprays etc., may be just as bad.

 

[zman1]

Just to make sure I wasn't misinterpreted. I recommend buying bagged Aragonite sand and live sand to seed with from a LFS.
I have seen a LFS drop bags of dry Aragonite in their live sand tank. Unfortunately for someone, they were buying live high dollar sand out of it the next week. I'll bet it didn't seed that fast.....
My comment is that - just because it's commercially bagged, doesn't mean it's pristine. Thomas won't use Instant Ocean salt because of a quality control issue he ran into once.
I will bet the dredgers aren't Six Sigma Black Belts....

 

[chipmaker]

The majority of good stuff in the sand wil be added by the live rock anyhow.....Aout all your getting in live sand is the so called bacteria......pods etc all come in the rocks..Now that can be a totally different ball game if you scarf up bona fine live sand out of the ocean, there is no telling what hitch hikers may be in it.......
It is absolutely 110% against the law to harvest or pickup live rock in the state of Floridas waters, as well as sand in most cases.......About the only thing you can pickup without a permit etc is dead sea shells off the beach........and of course sharks teeth which in some areas are quite prevalent and easy to find.

 

[zap800]

my first tank crash i blame on beach sand. my sister went to

[hr]
head and while she was there got a large ziplock back of beach sand for me. i thought i cleaned it pretty good and boiled it. i then proceeded to place it in my tank and bam! everyone died whith in one month of every known disease you can think of. it was a "greek tragity". so with that i will always say "stay away from it". for the price of a bag of regular play sand or even a bag of agrigonite comparitive to the total cost of a tank is inconsiquential.

 

[dingo0722]

Just to clarify this for me when you guys say "Aragonite sand", are you talking about the sand that you buy at Home Depot, similar to play sand, or are you talking about sand exclusively at LFS

 

[oceana]

Originally Posted by dingo0722
Just to clarify this for me when you guys say "Aragonite sand", are you talking about the sand that you buy at Home Depot, similar to play sand, or are you talking about sand exclusively at LFS

simple test. find the sand you want to use. grab a cup full of it and pour in some vinager.
if it bubbles it the good stuuf. if not its trash.
After you decide that it is the right "kind" of sand you then have to decide how to clean it.
IMO it best top leave it right where it is but if you really want to use i would cure it in salt water for quite some time beofre putting it in my display.
many many beaches truck sand in and it is not the right kind of sand.

 

[bonebrake]

Aragonite sand can be found at Home Depot and the LFS. It is fancy term for calcium carbonate sand; specifically orthorhombic, meaning it is more "egg-like" and rounded.
:joy:

 

[jr2857]

Originally Posted by Bonebrake
Aragonite sand can be found at Home Depot and the LFS. It is fancy term for calcium carbonate sand; specifically orthorhombic, meaning it is more "egg-like" and rounded.
:joy:
how much is it per pound?