Live sand

[direfishking27]

If I were to take sand straight from the ocean would that be considered live sand would that work okay

 

[Xbreakxitxdownx]

It would consider "live" sand but the contaminants can kill off any fish you put in it, for something to be "live" is would have to be full of natural bacteria.

 

[direfishking27]

But wouldn't all natural ocean water be the best or does it have to much other stuff in it would it be better to but sand

 

[Xbreakxitxdownx]

Live sand you buy at the store has contained bacteria from the fish they breed so the bacteria in the sand is not polluted if you use natural sand then add a fish that is not used to the contaminant that is in the sand then the fish will suffer or die.

 

[direfishking27]

Okay thank you sounds like I'll be buying my sand

 

[tyler1503]

If you want live sand, it would be best to buy it. I use beach sand with no ill affects, but wouldn't risk live sand I collected. There's too many nasty things out there you could introduce to your tank.
If you know someone who has live sand in their tank, you could maybe trade a cup of their live sand for a cup of your dry sand. That way their live sand can seed your dry sand.
You know when you say a word over and over and it starts to sound weird? Sand sounds weird to me now. It even looks weird :S

 

[Xbreakxitxdownx]

Not a problem! Just think 1 drop of oil can contaminate 15gals would you wanna risk it?

 

[WeLoveReefers]

I did that once. However I didn't like the look as it wasn't white. It was more brown and wasn't appealing to the eye.

 

[Intricateart]

We have a 150gal with 6 inch deep sand bed and 55 gal refugium also with dsb. All 300-400lbs of it was collected by my wife and I,brought home submerged in buckets ad coolers from the gulf of mexico. Also tons of live rock,hand picked each piece while snorkeling. Probably the best thing we did. Not much of a new tank cycle. Almost 3 years later,tons of sponge,small clams in the sand bed,free clean up crew.The sad bed has stayed white. Even filled with ocean water (at first),parameters a little off. Just make sure you collect somewhere of the beaten path,not the popular beach. Also the sand was collected while underwater,not dry up on the beach. Only thing it was bad for was our backs.

 

[Themonsterisme]

With our tanks we use things like skimmers to remove nasty stuff from the water...the oceans natural skimmer is the waves that push nasty stuff on the beach...imagine all the gasoline,food,oil,contaminants etc that are in the sand on the shore...you would effectively have to go offshore to get cleaner water and sand

 

[direfishking27]

We'll I scuba dive every weekend so getting off shore onto clean sand is no issue

 

[Themonsterisme]

I have a few scuba/reef aquarium buddies who said going a minimum of 20 miles off of the gulf coast is usually the safe bet for going to cleaner waters and said never collect surface water due to surface contaminants