Sand Collected at the Oregon Coast

[Eugene Reefer]

Dear Dr. Shimek,

A vendor in my hometown sells sand by the cubic yard that they say was collected at the Oregon coast. The sand is extremely fine--as fine, I think, as the ESV olithic sand--and has some black specs in it, which I suspect come from lava or the basalt cliffs that are common at the coast here. Do you think that this sand would be appropriate/safe to use in a deep sand bed--perhaps mixed with Southdown sand or something comparable? I would "seed" the bed with live sand from another reef tank that's been going for about 3 years now.

Thanks for your help.

George

[rshimek]

Hi George,

Such sand should be fine. The black particles are probably hematite; run a magnet through the sand and they will stick to it.

It can be used either with or without mixing with aragonitic sand. The sand-dwelling animals will not care what the sand is made of.

There will be a lot of silica in the sand, and it promote some diatom blooms, but extra grazers should take up the slack, if this occurs.