real beach sand

[SuperXdude]

Would adding real beach sand from the gulf coast help out the tank at all?

Wife is opposed to spending more $$$ for live sand at this time.


Thanks


SuperX

[Gin_Tseng]

well I have gotten free sand at the golf course. they have them in drums or big containers. It has a nice whitish-yellow color to it. I haven;t finished cycling it yet but it looks pretty clean and safe to me.

[reefer]

i've snag about 75 lbs of white sand one time from pensacola and placed it in my friends tank. there were soo many critters and shellfish, a really good snag! but, on the other hand you have to be carefull of where you remove it. try to avoid pulbic beaches near parking areas. when it rains, all that oil and road sediment washes into the beach area. once you found a safe spot, get it from the water's edge. you will score some very good sand, imo. full of angleshell fish, worms, copepods, ect... but as always, sift the sand a few times to get the broken beer bottle glass, twigs, hypodermic needles and other debris out of it.

it would just be easier in many cases to purchase livesand in the bag. much safer, and better quality.
:?

[texasreefer]

The cheapest way to get some live sand is trade w/ some other club members a couple of cups of sand out of your tank. That way you get a variety of life and it doesn't cost you anything. There have been several people in our club in Houston that have traded sand and it works out really well.

[SuperXdude]

Anyone in the San Antonio area willing to TRADE a cup of sand or a critter (define critter? :D )to help out a budding tank?

I am also looking into making some DIY Live Rock in a few months, if anyone wants to pitch in. It is much cheaper that buying real live rock, and fairly easy to make "show peices" that are huge.


SuperX

ps edited this to "trade" from donate. Last time I'll post without drinking my coffee first...

[SuperXdude]

think I convinced the wife we need to head to the beach this weekend.

It's gonna be Corpus or a little north of Corpus, unless anyone has a better idea.

Looking for somewhere with some inshore rocks or similar reef type rocks within 100-200 feet of shore.


SuperX

[longhorn_20m]

I went to Corpus last weekend, well Port A, Padre, and Corpus. I don't remember where I was, but I picked up sand along the beach. I didn't grab the wet stuff but the dry stuff packed up against the hill, I guess they push it there. I haven't put it in my tank yet, I'm waiting to get it, should be sometime this weekend or during next week. Boy I can't wait. But I plan on putting it in a pillow case and rinsing it good, maybe even use a mild bleach mixture because I have heard a lot of about polluntants and such. So I guess I will tell you when I get it set up if it is okay. But u will probably have some by then. I also grabbed crushed shells mixture to add to help with calcium/PH level.

I also looked for some rock, I actually went out on a jette, not sure how u spell it. Tons of rock, with barnacles and such all over it, but nothing that would look good in a tank, and it seems like it is rock that they put there, not really from ocean. It is solid, dense, and not porus at all. So I didn't grab any, since I'm only setting up around a 7 gallon tank, wouldn't be too much to buy some good stuff.

I hope the beach sand isn't contaminated cause I don't want to get it setup and then it crash. And I like the idea of having real sand from a beach in Texas in my own little tank!

Good luck, if you do find some nice rock, which I doubt it, because I couldn't find any :(, unless you go out to a reef and dive for it, pick me up a few lbs! I also tried to find hermits and such too, but no such luck.

Good luck, hopefully you find a few more things than I did.

[captexas]

SuperX and Longhorn -
The "live rock" that people put in their saltwater tanks is acutally pieces of reef that have broken apart during storms and heavy wave action. Divers go out and collect these pieces and sell them to distributors and it ends up at the local store or online for sale. There are no real reefs close to the shore of Texas so you will not find any "live rock" walking out from shore.

The rock that is at the jetty is actually large chunks of granite that the Army Corp of Engineers put there to help prevent erosion from the ship channel there and the beach. You don't want this stuff in your tank as it will not provide the same filtration benefits of live rock and it is also coated with fuel and other contaminants from passing ships. Also, the sand "hills" are actually sand dunes that are created by the wind blowing in from the gulf. In the public beach areas they do grade it every so often so your car won't sink into the sand. You don't want to get any sand from anywhere near the public areas. If you do want to try some sand from the coast, you need to go further down along the island. Most of that area though is 4x4 only though. Even then I would thoroughly rinse the sand just in case.

Hope that helps.
Chris 8)

[longhorn_20m]

Man so does that mean my sand is no good? Even if I rinse it well and even use a mild bleach mixture?

[captexas]

I don't know exactly where you got it so I really couldn't say if it is ok or not. Even if you did get if from a less traveled area it could be hit or miss. If you do use a bleach solution to rinse it, you need to really rinse well after that to get any bleach left over out of the sand before you put it in a tank. All I can say is try it and see how it goes, you may not have any problems with it. Just be sure to have a good test set and test the water before adding anything live to the tank.

[longhorn_20m]

Hopefully for my sake it is fine. Because I barely have any money to put in it, so if it crashed, I would be done with.

[Andrew]

if you have a cast net (round net with weights on ends), you can catch all kinds of little fish
in Corpus (and I'm sure other places along TX coast) like pipefish, sea horses,
blennies, and a species of damsel (white w/black stripes and green hue
on it's back), and others.

If you seach below the water level, you may be able to find purple spiny urchins as well (on the jetties)

If you take any home, you would probably want to consider putting them in a quarantine tank for a few weeks before putting them in a display aquarium

[Sherri]

Yeah they are...I found out the hard way snorkeling in Mexico...they won't hesitate in popping you when you swim thru narrow passages! :scold:

Not that you'll be snorkeling in your tank... ;)

Sherri

[SuperXdude]

I've heard evil things about damsels....very territorial little cretins....

Kinda like my 3 year old....everything she touches is hers...LMAO...


SuperX

[Andrew]

the last time I had a Marine aquarium and had one, it wasn't terribly aggressive, at least not compared to domino, and seemed to leave everyone else alone (this must be abnormal???)

Or are they fine w/other damsels?