mixing beach sand and aragonite

[skwsith]

Is it okay to have beach sand and aragonite in a nano tank? I'm thinking of collecting fine beach sand from near live rocks and corals, then putting a layer of this beach sand on the bottom of the tank, and then putting a layer of aragonite on top of it. In regards to carribes sea aragonite sand, which one is good for nano tanks? I was looking the the seafloor type.

[mswt5]

What beach are you getting it from? Every beach has a different type of sand. I used some sand from the beach added to my aragonite. The beach sand I got as a brownish color and very fine. The mix actually looked pretty nice and made a nice muddy mix which is good also. That just my experience tho.

[duckhuntboy]

What I was told on RC about beach sand, is that unless you get it from a beach that is never used (by people, I mean) it's a bad idea. Also, dried sand on the beach is OK, but not the best for the particle size you want. Think about it: The top of the sand washes up on shore. The lighter pieces. That's it... Nothing underneath the top. If you are going to get beach sand, get as far off shore as possible, and get it from there. I'm sure with the aragonite on top, you'd be allright, but if you have shallow water where you get it, walk out a ways.

[Will]

I too have collected live sand from local beaches. If you can't get away from the shore (which I couldn't), the best time to collect is low tide, specifically when the tide has gone out instead of when it's begnning to come back in. Get it from a few feet out (a bit over your knee) and you'll be fine. Just make sure you don't collect from beaches that are over-developed or the sand may be contaminated.
-Will

[frugalreefer]

You can buy a 50lb bag of playsand from Home Depot or I got mine from B&B Do It Center for under $4.00. It's white sand but compared to aragonite its on the greyish side. It's a lot cleaner than what you'll get at the beach. Then, like you said...use it for the lower part of your dsb and lay your aragonite over it.

Hope I was helpful... Good Luck.

[skwsith]

Thanks guys. I figure the sand will be collected from probably knee high to waist high water. The sand is a brownish white in color so it will look good. I figure I'll dig down a little ways into the sand to get what I want :) .