Sand directly from the beach in So-Cal??

[runway1]

I live along the gorgeous beaches in southern California - Huntington Beach, to be exact. Is there a problem with walking out into the ocean and retrieving 50# of sand for my tank?

Just curious. Seems to be teaming with shells and such and also seems to make perfect sense or??? not?

 

[Salttanker]

It seems it would make perfect sense. However, we don't know what kind of toxins, diseases or pollutants that the sand may contain. It could be a gamble. Maybe someone else here has experienced that process and can chime in for you.

Mike

 

[quarryshark]

Just want to back up Mike here by saying I agree its not a good idea unless you can get a boat and go out a few miles to dive for it.
Sand from the beach can be extremely polluted.

 

[Fenix]

Agreed. Sand from the beach also has all of the skimate from the ocean in it, so you basicly put everything that a skimmer would take out, into your tank.

 

[scuba_steve]

disagree ! i have on a few occasions taking sand from around chest deep with out any issues ! and will have allot more life than bought sand

 

[RocketSeason]

I wouldnt do it. I have heard of some bad stuff happening.

 

[scuba_steve]

I wouldnt do it. I have heard of some bad stuff happening.

lmao ya couldnt be anymore specific than that
have heard cell phones are bad for ya to but is there any true findings?

not knocking you rocket but lets hear or read these bad issues !

 

[BillyZ]

have heard cell phones are bad for ya to but is there any true findings?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1436543,00.html


regarding taking sand from the beach, First and foremost, check your local laws! There are a number of beaches that are protected by local, state and sometimes federal conservation laws that either limit or outright prohibit taking sand from the beachs/oceans.

if you're clear legally, then I agree with not taking it from the beach as there can be a lot of "junk" taking it from the beach or right at the shore line. I don't think you need to go to the depths you would need scuba gear for, but the furthor out you can get and safely retrieve teh sand the better, IMO.

No, i don't have any studies or links to back it up, I'm just thinking logically. Walk along the shorline during a storm, you get foam from the proteins collecting at the shoreline, human garbage washes up to the shore line and settles there, dead fish wash up and settle there, etc. these are the things we're refering to. Being at the shore line the amoune of natural "clean up" seems as though it would be less than that deeper where there is always water, and more life than what crawls the beaches.

JMO

 

[scuba_steve]

interesting on the cell phone link ! curious if gsm phones cause the same issues ! my guess is these test were done on either older anolog phones or mabe digital ones ! gsm is radio waves which most people are switching to these days anyway ?!? whats that gonna do to us ?

right were the waves break are animals that need to be expossed to the air ect..(sand fleas,coccenoes (sp?) those animals will not live long in a tank! but the sand that never sees air has the same life that would be out 1 mile or more !
going out chest deep or even swimming to the sand bar your not gonna find trash ect.. most that stuff floats and why it on the beach ! but do as ya wish i know ive done it twice for my tanks and once for my brothers and happy i didnt spend the money for someone to get it for me

 

[pearsont74]

This is interesting discussion cause I live in fla and I know you cant take live rock from state waters here but I dont read under the regulations about sand/live sand. I personally wouldnt trust sand off the beach....I agree with Fenix plus never know all the unknow junk in beach sand....chemicals and such
It is something I was thinkin of looking into goin out and getting some sand about a mile off shore....I guess it wold be best to cure it awhile before adding it to an existing tank

 

[BillyZ]

IMO, if you're taking it from reasonably deep waters, you shouldn't need to cure it at all. Nor rinse or anything else. If your comfortable with the sand you're getting, it should go from ocean to tank. After it's settled in the tank (and the tank should be full of water) you could let it set without adding any rock anything for a day or so if you wanted to watch for hitchikers etc. Make sure no nasties got brought along.

 

[swissfish]

wait till the run of from the rain is cleard off. I think you might take it about a week after it is safe to surf again.

Hang loose

 

[RocketSeason]

I keep my cell phone in my front pocket. Can I have children anymore?

Scuba Steve, I mean bad stuff Like. "After I introduced 10 lbs of sand from the beach into my system, my fish all died."

That kinda bad stuff.

 

[cmor1701d]

YMMV is all I can add to this topic. Hey Steve, there's this game I heard about. You take a revolver and only put 1 bullet in it. Then you spin the chamber, close it and put the barrel to your head. Then you pull the trigger.

Just because you didn't have a problem a couple of times does not mean that another person in another location is not going to bring all kind of nasties into a closed marine system.

I wouldn't do it to my tank because the idea of losing all the livestock to save a few bucks doesn't make sense to me. I'd rather beg or borrow a cup of LS from another tank that has been running problem free for some time.

 

[Salttanker]

ouch! 8O

Mike

 

[scuba_steve]

I wouldn't do it to my tank because the idea of losing all the livestock to save a few bucks doesn't make sense to me. I'd rather beg or borrow a cup of LS from another tank that has been running problem free for some time.

your sand bed will never be as good as mine end of story

Just because you didn't have a problem a couple of times does not mean that another person in another location is not going to bring all kind of nasties into a closed marine system.

why i asked for examples !!! yet to hear or see any ! have you smarty ?

 

[scuba_steve]

YMMV is all I can add to this topic. Hey Steve, there's this game I heard about. You take a revolver and only put 1 bullet in it. Then you spin the chamber, close it and put the barrel to your head. Then you pull the trigger.

This portion of your post has been edited, it is in violation of the User Agreement. Further violations of the User Agreement could result in removal from our community.

 

[cmor1701d]

Hey Keith,

Didn't mean to offend, just offer a contrary point of view. If that makes me an idiot in your eyes so be it. I still believe that if you are taking your chances with that method when you don't have to. Dry sand is $3 - $5 per 50 pound bag. A little LS from anywhere free or next to nothing. Get a cup a cup there and the diversity is probably greater than you have from taking sand from one spot in the ocean.

 

[quarryshark]

OK guys, were all friends here. We can post different opinion on the subject, but lets not get personal. Don't want to break out the padlock, its a good subject.

 

[revhtree]

Good subject, but as Q said, let's keep it civil my friends.

I know many will disagree as they are with scuba S, but if I lived close to the shore of a nice beach in Florida or somewhere reasonably clean, then I would be inclined to go out as far as possible and give the sand a shot. Really there is no telling where alot of this "live sand" comes from. Maybe it comes right off of the beach front.

Anyway, it's ok to disagree.