is natural sand from beaches bad?

[blackthunda77]

i have this 55 gal reef tank set up and alot of the base rock and all the sand is str8 form the beach sinc i live 5 min away, in FTL LAUDERDALE FL. can beach sand be bad for a tank?? i have had no problems but my two friends each just set up tanks like a month ago and there ammomnia is still high and nirtrites are up. i think its stll cycling but they went to a pet stroe and i think they got some bogus advice from a guy there. he said sand from a beach is toxic to tank, it has "some sort of bateria that will make the ammonia always be high". i think its BS, anyone have some comments? alotta my stuff comes from t the beach, rocks sand, polyp corals starfish, cucumbers, numerous fish. i have not been able to keep a fish in a hile except for my PJ cardinal but that is cuz of an Ich infestatio which i have pevious posts on.

[kellane1]

I got all my sand from the local beach, changed out my tank to include it, added NO new fish and my little mates now all have coral reef disease This is the only place i can think of, where they could have got it from.. so i hope that you do not have this problem..
kell

[BONESTOCK]

hehe..I bought live sand from www.liverocks.com and I'm sure they get it from the beach....no problem here.
Your lucky...in Mass our water is too cold so the inhabitants most likely wouldn't survive in my tank...plus I don't trust the area to being clean.

[reefrunner69]

The largest concern for adding sand from the beach is pollution. In high traffic areas the beach sand is likely to be contaminated with who knows what.

"some sort of bateria that will make the ammonia always be high"

You were right here, this is

Be careful collecting from FL waters, it is illegal to collect alot of stuff

[scuba_steve]

how deep ya did ya get your sand ?? the deeper the better !!

[blackthunda77]

i have a list for harvesting info from florida waters, and interestingly enough, there are only a few things you cant take for example, hard corals, a specific kind of gorgonian, and a bahama starfish and live rock, probably make up a quarter of the list, pretty short, everythig else if fair game if you have your saltwater fihing liscence

[Zack]

I bought live sand from www.liverocks.com and I'm sure they get it from the beach....no problem here

Hey
It is a little diffreent then just going to the beach. We go servel miles out into the keys water on the reefs to collect the sand. Just to let ya know

[cmor1701d]

Florida running out of sand? Here's an U.S. Army Corps of Engineers article from 1997 stating... "Believe it or not, Florida is running out of sand. Jacksonville District sponsored a conference April 24-25 to discuss using non-domestic sand for hurricane and beach protection projects in South Florida"

The link is here

[scuba_steve]

never gonna happen !! i lived in venice beach my whole life and when i was a kid yes the beach was nice !! over the years it shrunk in half !! so what they did is pumped sand from out in the gulf back up onto the beach !! most dont know that the gulf of mexico is something like 90% sandy bottom !! all of florida is on sand !! have ya ever tried to dig a hole in florida ??? after the first 1' the hole fills with water !! why they dont have basements!! yes they have got strick on sand replacement but theres enough out there for sure !! thats like saying they running out of water !! they live over water heheheh

[cmor1701d]

Steve, did you READ the article? It's about beach replenishment and not having enough native sand so they need to bring it up from island nations.

Again fromthe article "Off-shore sand deposits for beach renourishment are dwindling, especially on the southeast coast of Florida off Broward and Dade counties. They may be depleted in five years. Finding alternate sand sources is a crucial challenge for beach experts. "

This is from the Army Corp. of Engineers.

[astride13]

I gathered my own sand, some from Fort Lauderdale beach and some from an island off the Florida Keys. I didn't wash it or anything. I put it in my tank wet, and no problems a year later.

I think the key is getting it from a lower traffic area and getting it from the water. If you get it from the water, it is naturally "clean". I am sure it is not 100% contaminant free, but the levels will be pretty low.

Be careful for Coney Island Whitefish!