Home Depot sand?

[natman2]

Since were on the topic I live in Sarasota Florida. We have stark white award winning sugar sand beaches. I can jump in my Kayak and paddle to some very remote areas where there is sand stacked up well away from the breakers and not much chance of having come into contact with any pollutants and has baked in the sun for literally years. I was thinking of using some of this in my next tank.

Think there would be any problems with it?

[dskidmore]

If it's baked in the sun for years, then it won't have the advantages of live sand. As long as collecting it is legal in your area, it might make a good base sand though. Add a few cups of live sand from other reefer's tanks, and you'll be set.

[90_berlin_joe]

Could this sand quikrete become live sand, or is this just going to be used for display and filtration purposes?

[dskidmore]

Quartz sand can be come live sand, however, it will not have the water buffering qualities of argonite sand. It would still be worth your time and dollars to get a small quantity of live sand to seed organisims into the quickcrete sand.

[cmor1701d]

Any substrate you use will become "LIVE" once it's coated with bacteria. That's all Live means. The grains have had a chance to become coated with nitrifying bacteria.
Regular [acronym:8900385e22="Partial water change"]PWC[/acronym:8900385e22] will keep the pH up and the base chemistry in your tank at the proper levels (unless you have a lot of corals).
You can buy a detrivore kit or two online of get some sand from a local reefer for the [acronym:8900385e22="Live sand"]LS[/acronym:8900385e22] critters that live in the sand. Adding [acronym:8900385e22="Live rock"]LR[/acronym:8900385e22] will also see the sand with some [acronym:8900385e22="copepods, amphipods, etc"]pods[/acronym:8900385e22].