I believe beach sand works

Tgreen182 · 10/14/2015, 01:13 PM

In late spring I collected about 50 pounds of NJ beach sand. It wasn't clean by any means. In separate small batches I rinsed a ton, bleached for 24 hours. Rinsed numerous times. Then boiled it for 3 hours (huge mess haha). AND THEN on top of that because I'm paranoid I baked it in thin layers for 4 hours at 400 degrees (make sure you use a cover). Seems like extreme overkill but I've read a ton of beach sand hating threads, so I wanted to be safer than sorry. 6 months later my 30 gallon mixed reef and 7g nano are thriving. The only thing I spent on sand was time.

hotelbravo · 10/14/2015, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tgreen182

In late spring I collected about 50 pounds of NJ beach sand. It wasn't clean by any means. In separate small batches I rinsed a ton, bleached for 24 hours. Rinsed numerous times. Then boiled it for 3 hours (huge mess haha). AND THEN on top of that because I'm paranoid I baked it in thin layers for 4 hours at 400 degrees (make sure you use a cover). Seems like extreme overkill but I've read a ton of beach sand hating threads, so I wanted to be safer than sorry. 6 months later my 30 gallon mixed reef and 7g nano are thriving. The only thing I spent on sand was time.

there are different types of sand found on beaches some are composed of more silicates than others and feed algae. others are mostly quartz and so on. so while your tank might be doing well with the sand you collected I feel like it might inspire others to go grab sand for their tank without doing research as so what type of sand that actually is..

Greybeard · 10/14/2015, 02:07 PM

Nearly all of New Jersey's beaches are artificially replenished with sand on a regular basis... what you picked up on the shore is most likely dredged up from several miles offshore. If it's working for you, great, but I'd hesitate to recommend collecting sand, when the cost for bagged sand is such an insignificant portion of the overall cost of an aquarium. Not to mention that it's illegal to remove sand in large quantity from just about any public beach.

Tgreen182 · 10/14/2015, 02:57 PM

I agree that beach sand should be used with extreme caution, I've been very fortunate that silicates or foreign pollutants haven't caused any major blooms or damage as of yet. But yes these things can happen when you chose to test boundaries, I don't want anybody to think I'm declaring beach sand safe. Only sharing my recipe for what's worked for me.

CStrickland · 10/14/2015, 03:32 PM

I put in beach sand about a year ago, no issues.
I just brought it home and cured it in a bucket with water that I took out of my tank, like you would live rock, since there were a fair number of cool water shrimps etc that died and spiked ammonia.
I had normal diatoms, but that would be expected since I also used mined rock.

It's really pretty in my tank because a portion is heavier black sand so it settles into stripes where the sand makes hills and valleys. I wouldn't collect sand that looked unnatural like the play sand they sell at Home Depot, or if there had been an oil spill recently, but that's just common sense. I'd use beach sand again in a heartbeat. Not so much for the cost savings, but just cause it's cool

Tgreen182 · 10/14/2015, 04:37 PM

I agree, it definitely has a nice look that you won't see in many aquariums!

CStrickland · 10/14/2015, 05:44 PM

I do think that one function that natural sand might lack is the chemical processes that aragonite does in our tanks. CaCO3 stuff like buffer ph, sink phos, and maybe add Ca, idk really how those processes occur, but if natural sand isn't doing them it's no worse than a BB tank or an old used up dsb I guess.

Also it's finer than aragonite so detritus tends to settle on top instead of falling down into the sand, that makes it easier to suck out crud with a piece of hose, or just blow it back up into the water column for other filtration to manage. Like the benefits of finer sand, but without the risk of it blowing around, since as least in my case it is pretty heavy stuff.

Of course, you don't want to generalize too much about any of this b/c theres so much variety in beaches.

10/14/2015, 01:13 PM	#1
Tgreen182 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2015 Location: Monmouth County, NJ Posts: 19	I believe beach sand works In late spring I collected about 50 pounds of NJ beach sand. It wasn't clean by any means. In separate small batches I rinsed a ton, bleached for 24 hours. Rinsed numerous times. Then boiled it for 3 hours (huge mess haha). AND THEN on top of that because I'm paranoid I baked it in thin layers for 4 hours at 400 degrees (make sure you use a cover). Seems like extreme overkill but I've read a ton of beach sand hating threads, so I wanted to be safer than sorry. 6 months later my 30 gallon mixed reef and 7g nano are thriving. The only thing I spent on sand was time.

10/14/2015, 03:32 PM	#5
CStrickland Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: New England, U.S. Posts: 4,595	I put in beach sand about a year ago, no issues. I just brought it home and cured it in a bucket with water that I took out of my tank, like you would live rock, since there were a fair number of cool water shrimps etc that died and spiked ammonia. I had normal diatoms, but that would be expected since I also used mined rock. It's really pretty in my tank because a portion is heavier black sand so it settles into stripes where the sand makes hills and valleys. I wouldn't collect sand that looked unnatural like the play sand they sell at Home Depot, or if there had been an oil spill recently, but that's just common sense. I'd use beach sand again in a heartbeat. Not so much for the cost savings, but just cause it's cool __________________ If you're havin tank problems I feel bad for you, son. I got 99 problems but a fish ain't one Current Tank Info: 3/2016 upgrade to 120g. Chalk bass, melanurus, firefish, starry blenny, canary blenny, lyretail anthias, engineer gobys, kole tang. Softies / LPS / NPS. <3 noob4life <3

10/14/2015, 05:44 PM	#7
CStrickland Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: New England, U.S. Posts: 4,595	I do think that one function that natural sand might lack is the chemical processes that aragonite does in our tanks. CaCO3 stuff like buffer ph, sink phos, and maybe add Ca, idk really how those processes occur, but if natural sand isn't doing them it's no worse than a BB tank or an old used up dsb I guess. Also it's finer than aragonite so detritus tends to settle on top instead of falling down into the sand, that makes it easier to suck out crud with a piece of hose, or just blow it back up into the water column for other filtration to manage. Like the benefits of finer sand, but without the risk of it blowing around, since as least in my case it is pretty heavy stuff. Of course, you don't want to generalize too much about any of this b/c theres so much variety in beaches. __________________ If you're havin tank problems I feel bad for you, son. I got 99 problems but a fish ain't one Current Tank Info: 3/2016 upgrade to 120g. Chalk bass, melanurus, firefish, starry blenny, canary blenny, lyretail anthias, engineer gobys, kole tang. Softies / LPS / NPS. <3 noob4life <3

10/14/2015, 02:07 PM	#3
Greybeard Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2015 Location: Buffalo, MO Posts: 651	Nearly all of New Jersey's beaches are artificially replenished with sand on a regular basis... what you picked up on the shore is most likely dredged up from several miles offshore. If it's working for you, great, but I'd hesitate to recommend collecting sand, when the cost for bagged sand is such an insignificant portion of the overall cost of an aquarium. Not to mention that it's illegal to remove sand in large quantity from just about any public beach.

10/14/2015, 02:57 PM	#4
Tgreen182 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2015 Location: Monmouth County, NJ Posts: 19	I agree that beach sand should be used with extreme caution, I've been very fortunate that silicates or foreign pollutants haven't caused any major blooms or damage as of yet. But yes these things can happen when you chose to test boundaries, I don't want anybody to think I'm declaring beach sand safe. Only sharing my recipe for what's worked for me.

10/14/2015, 04:37 PM	#6
Tgreen182 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2015 Location: Monmouth County, NJ Posts: 19	I agree, it definitely has a nice look that you won't see in many aquariums!