Sand at the beach

[thinhvu]

I live in Houston, Texas and it takes me about 1hr to get to Galveston or Port Auhtur to get sand around the beach for DSB. But i am not sure how safe it is. Anyone has been experienced with that, please give your opinions.



Thanks in Advance

 

[NaCl-H2O]

My biggest consern would be the probable presents of pollutants. There also may be high NO3 and PO4. I guess if you could be certain you could remove all of the above you maybe alright. I don't think I would risk it.

 

[HARPO]

We are talking about beach sand right, the same stuff dogs pee in, people spill their beer, soda and what ever in? I wouldn't touch it.
Bill

 

[saltcritter]

Been there done that!

Good deal and FREE!!!

Carb Sea and others are Selling Sand.

There is reason why you should not, but all I have ever heard is MAYBE this and MAYBE that.

I did and NOTHING has been shown in my reef to say bad deal.

If you are looking at pretty, well it is not white sugar looking but it is good.
Just drop in 3/4 full tank and let all the silt rise and turn all the pumps on and filer floss you can change for 1-2 days.
Then top it off with Argonite or crushed Coral and let it sit for 2-3 days with lights off.
Use UV if you have one and then after a few days remove all filter floss, change and add Carbon, change carbon in 3 days and then after 1 week/1.5 weeks, you are set.

Set up your bio and clean out everything for a fish/ damsel and or a cheepe and go from there slowly.

If you see the Cheepe kick it, ( of course you did set lights up) then look for major outbreak , if you do not see anything strange then try another cheepe and see if it goes well for a few weeks.

No problems with fish then try hardey coral, leather or something and go from there.

I have fill 5 tanks with FL beach sand and San Diego beach sand and I have yet to see my reefs fail.

Try to stay away from peeing dogs and people, just walk down to the water line and fill a bucket or two and see how the sea is for you.

I tried not to have the drunks pour beer in my buckets. :roll:

 

[saltcritter]

8O
I know it is shocking but!, I have done many tests on the waters and sand, for Masters to Hagen to LaMote and had the sand tested for metals and other contaniments from Lab Specialist friend and yet have had anything come bad with High or even readable levels of anything.

I guess it is luck?

I think not.

I do hear Hope Depot is selling sand as well.

I do not think the beach sand is pretty or will cycle your tank as fast, it is quite washed out and silty.

I would recomend to cover it over by 1-2 inches for your DSB, then you get cheep and pretty, without breaking the bank on a 100-200gallon 5-6inch DSB.

Shocking but true. 8O

 

[Reefguide]

I wouldn't put it in my tank...

 

[thinhvu]

I have checked at HD, and they do not carry SouthDow anymore. They only sell Quickrett. I do not know that it is safe or not. Anyone uses it?

 

[Pit Bull]

The water form Galveston is totally differnet than from FL or any where else. Galveston's beaches are pretty nasty and polluted.

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry to dredge up an old topic, but I have an additional question.
Putting contaminant/pollutant concerns aside for the moment, how do you think sand taken from underwater at the local beach compares to retail "live" sand? This is Ft Lauderdale btw. I live 2 minutes from the beach, and am considering getting a few buckets from a few yards out past the low tide line. The kind of sand that hasn't been sitting out in the sun for weeks and still contains a multitude of living organisms. This is for a brand new 75 gallon, so I have all the time I need to cycle it and filter any unwanted silt or chemicals. Is this what they mean by live sand? Sand that contains biological organisms and microbes? I don't want a dead anerobic sand bottom on my tank. I'm also going for as near a "natural" environment as possible, which is why this type of sand appeals to me. Any comments?

 

[MarkO1]

jasen, I think you are on the right track.
You will find a lot of "nay"ers because they fear taking a chance, and I can understand why (I for one have dumped close to $5000 on my tank). For such an investment, is it really worth the chance? Probably not if it means saving $20 but at the price of losing sleep.
If you are trying to duplicate nature (which I believe we all do) then I would take that chance. Especially if you really don't have much to lose. I'd be more cautious with the equipment you use to transport the sand than the sand itself. You don't want a bucket your buddy just used to change his oil with...
_________________
what is an economic recession

 

[wombat1]

There's a huge dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico right around Texas and Louisiana that results from the Mississippi dumping nutrient laden water into the sea. If corals can't live near there I wouldn't want sand from the beach there in my tank. On the other hand I have a friend who used Santa Cruz beach sand with no problems, and the water there is COLD. I would just shell out the money unless you're really hard up for cash.

 

[Anonymous]

If I lived in Fla you couldn't keep me away from live sand; and beach sand probably is fine too, if thats what you want. Texas, I don't know- but if you don't take it out of an obviously polluted place I would not worry and use it.

 

[Minh Nguyen]

I dug the sand from Corpus Christi Bay and dump it into my refugium, 6 inches. It work great and full of live. I collected the sand in the mid Summer where the water temperature is in the 80's so the creature can tolerate 84 degree in my tank. I have no problem with this. We eat sea food come from this area, gulf of Mexico, why do you think it is so poluted?
if you really wanted clean sand, use the sand that got swept into sand dunes around the coast. They are fine, white and have minimal organic contamination.
I used Southdown sand for my tank, but for the next tank, I just use sand from Mustang island sand dunes.

Minh

 

[texasreefer]

I've used sand from Galveston for a small tank I have and have not had any problems. I've also used the Quickctrete sand from HD and it works fine as well.

 

[wade1]

Couple of points....

1- sand, esp beach sand in high energy environments is relatively low in pollutants, but also very low in diversity of life. Tidal is even worse.

2- ANY area around a seaport is a BAD idea. The amount of organic contaminants is staggering (and galveston is horrid).

3- if you take sand, try to find a region thats 4+ feet deep to take it from, its lower energy and higher in diversity and less likely to have large organic contaminants (like from fuel, etc)

That said, I think real live sand is a great thing, but I would seriously be careful of where I take it from...


Wade