I know there is a risk for contimination but has anyone ever tried to wash than boil it to make a cheap substrate for there tank. I was thinking about boiling it in my turkey friar to steralize it, then top with store bought live sand to make setting up my 180 cheaper.
Anyone ever use beach sand
- Thread starter The1and only
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hmmmmmmmmm that just might work, not positive though. If you mix it with live sand I dont see why not.
I have thought about it since its easy enough to get where I live, but liked the color of white play sand much better. I don't see why it wouldn't work if cleaned well though.
i tried this in my tank and after about a month took it all out again.
the fish were stirring it up all the time and my tank was forever looking cloudy which i just did not like. have since gone back to gravel.
the fish were stirring it up all the time and my tank was forever looking cloudy which i just did not like. have since gone back to gravel.
i used pool filter sand it is heavier than beach sand and it doesn't cloud the water when it is stirred up by the fish...........here is a pic of the sand it the tank
dont boil it for too long or the sand may break down. Otherwise i say, give it a shot and see if it works. lol
Why not just use play sand its cheap and if you wash it first its fine I used it in my 150 but I sold that a while back. I like the look of play sand for some reason.
play sand has a lot of silicate in it and over time can cause algae issues. same with certain pool filter sand from what ive read.
i have beach sand in my tank. no problems so far. i didnt boil it or treat it in any way. but i have it in my native set up. i collected it within meters of where i collected my livestock. as natural as possibe? 
as it came from the same beach as my fish, i dont think that i'll have to worry too much about contaminants leaching into the water, as the fish will be used to it already. and any others will be removed with water changes. its also live at the beach, so i didnt need to seed it with live sand from an lfs or a mature tank. great! all the hard work was done for me...
if you try it make sure to get it from a clean beach. to minimise any contaminents. i started my tank from scratch with fish from the same beach. they will have some tolerance of most things present in the sand. im not sure what it would do to an already mature tank. especially it there are any things in the sand that shouldnt be there. corals are expensive...
as it came from the same beach as my fish, i dont think that i'll have to worry too much about contaminants leaching into the water, as the fish will be used to it already. and any others will be removed with water changes. its also live at the beach, so i didnt need to seed it with live sand from an lfs or a mature tank. great! all the hard work was done for me...
if you try it make sure to get it from a clean beach. to minimise any contaminents. i started my tank from scratch with fish from the same beach. they will have some tolerance of most things present in the sand. im not sure what it would do to an already mature tank. especially it there are any things in the sand that shouldnt be there. corals are expensive...