beach life?

Ray Laneville · Feb 17, 2019

Hi,
I live in eastern north Carolina. It will soon be beach season here. I have a 90 gal reef tank going.
I know it's all been discussed before but I was thinking about the benefit vs. risk of adding beach sand/shells or creatures in my tank. Adding biodiversity vs. bad hitchhikers. In summer the water temp here is about about 80 degrees so what lives here should be able to live in tank? I'm sure there are strong opinions both ways but it sure would be interesting to add local beach life to my system. Any thoughts?

Matt Carden · Feb 17, 2019

I live in Augusta Georgia. I will be going to every beach from Folley to Jacksonville this summer to add sediment and Natural Salt Water(NSW). My tank has been wet since Nov 1st 18. @Paul B has been using NSW from near NYC for over 40 years and his tank has never crashed.

Matt Carden · Feb 17, 2019

Also what I did was to start up my diversity of filter feeders I bought the 17 lbs live rock package from gulfliverock.com . Lots of life and every 10 minutes or there us an explosion of what I can only assume is something trying to spread their seed. I have so many pods that algae cant grow on my glass.

jtl · Feb 17, 2019

Some do it with success. I only live 3 blocks from the Gulf of Mexico in SW Florida but I avoid putting anything from the gulf in my tank. There are just too many pollutants, especially close to shore. There are even outflows from the storm water system that flow into the gulf.