beach sand

[jasonmemo]

can you use beach sand in a planted aquarium?

 

[timwag2001]

straight from the beach?

 

[jasonmemo]

yea, i got it at a near beach from my house.

 

[Lupin]

I don't see why not. Just give it a rinse to minimize possible salt residues.

 

[OgreMkV]

I'd say it depends on where you live and how many drunken parties occurred on the beach?

When I live on the coast, I wouldn't even eat anything that had been in that water. If you want huge quantities of red algae, then that sand would be perfect. If you live on a pristine, seldom used shoreline with no random debris and crap... then it should be OK... as Lupin said, rinse well. I'd even consider heating it to kill off algae, microscopic critters, and bacteria.

 

[wetwillyjoe69]

nothing like a few hours at 400 in the oven

 

[schaadrak]

You're going to need to rinse it a few times to get the salt out of it.

Play sand is the same thing and only costs about $5 for a 30lbs bag.

 

[Ajordan]

a lil bleach never hurt anything either...

except for bacteria, algae and most other living stuff haha

 

[coach_z]

rinse it, bleach it, bake it, smoke it...whatever you need to do to rinse out and then kill naything that might be living that you dont want in your tank. Once you are all done getting the sand, rinsing it, baking it, bleaching it or whatever it will probably have been cheaper to go buy sand from the store.
-chris

 

[Slappy*McFish]

Play sand is the same thing and only costs about $5 for a 30lbs bag.

yup.