Sand from the beach?

[teddy]

Can anyone give me some advice on a substrate for my tank. Over the past few months I have been putting together the kit to start a 80g reef tank and have managed to get everything (although Tunze stream and controller still hasn't arrived) apart from substrate. Dubai only has about 3 LFS and none of them do coral sand.

I have managed to find some coral gravel, about 1 - 4mm, but I have read on here quite a few people being quite negative about it. I live right next to the beach on the Arabian Gulf and the sand looks very good and clean. If I wade out about 20 yards or so and collect the sand will it be safe. The sand that is, not me.

My plan was to mix the coral gravel with the sand. Or would it be safer to just use the gravel.

Any thoughts would be most appreciated.

[phil519]

sand will depend on:

(as you noted)
cleanliness - is there polution from nearby cities? any recent big oil tankers that dropped a few million gallons of oil onto the surface? etc.
temperature - if it's not the similar/same as your reef tank, you'll be putting a lot of critters from the sand into a new cooler/hotter tank which could potentially create an ammonia spike (not good).
critters - if the temp is okay you may still get parasitic or predatory critters. Never know. This is a risk though that exists on LR anyway.

In the end, since you're the one of the few with experience living in dubai and know the beaches there - you'll have to be our "expert".
;)

[Ti]

hot water and some bleach to kill all the stuff growing in that sand.

[sarduci]

Then the sand may as well be bought from a store if you're going to use bleach on it. Then you know it's pure and there isn't any junk in it.

[krayzie]

i think the grain size is too small

i tried manly beach sand.. i pulled it out n put bigger grain size in

it makes it much brighter then the bronze colour substrate

the only reason i used beach sand was because i wanted 2 keep cost down... but hey...

its worth a try...

[Ti]

Only cheap place I know for sand is HomeDepot.

[marinegirl]

there can be problems with beach sand i asked the same question and the result was the like krayzie says ... Grain size can be too small and this causes your water to all ways look like theres stuff floating in it ....

[Jimsmowen]

Hmm I had beach sand in my tank till about 3 days ago, my LFS friend told me it will encourage red slime algae growth because of the type of sand it is... anyway it was annoying me! Go barebottom! thats what I am doing now and the tank looks SO much cleaner!

[krayzie]

id rather DSB then bare bottom

[marinegirl]

hey jim is that your Green truck i see driving all over the place ... with jims mowing on the side ?

[krayzie]

jims mowing is a francise isnt it?

[teddy]

Thanks for all the replies and advice.

The beaches in Dubai and particularly where I live are very clean compared to Europe, I don't know what they are like in USA?

Logic tells me that there would be no more bad critters or parasites in the sand than there are in the LR, however remnants of oil spills worry me. With regards to grain size I have found a spot where the sand looks like finely crushed coral gravel mixed with coral gravel so grain size isn't a problem.

I don't want to risk the 600$ worth of Indonesian LR I have just bought so I think I will go with the coral gravel only but presumably a DSB with only coral gravel would not work? I am therefore planning a 2inch bed, would that be about right?

I would rather give up than go barebottom because it looks awful!

[zooqi]

Sand from Dubai beaches should be fine in your aquarium and you should not have any problem. I do remember days where oil spill was common around UAE beaches and if you walk or drive you will see oil on your shoes or tires. The best sand I would say will be from Jumairah area since is a little far from town. It will be allot nicer if you can go out on a boat and get some from deeper water. I have done many dives in Dubai, Fujairah, Koor Fakan, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and wish if I'm that close to the water like you are. There are tons of corals that you can pick from there that we pay $$$$$$ for here in the US.

[zooqi]

Now one more thing you can check is to take some sand from the beach (put your magnet glass cleaner in a bag (zip lock if have one) and move it in the sand and see if you get any metal in that sand. I know you won't find any or as much as we have here in East coast beaches from all of those wrecks. I would like to see some pictures someday.