What's in your sand? I have bits of metal in mine.

**secretreefer** · 06-16-2012, 06:08 PM

So I decided instead of using the suction cup on my veggie clip, I went ahead and put 2 magnets together (with 1 side of the finger clip part in between magnets) to give it weight and a more "natural" way of the tang gang to feed (grazing below instead of going up to feed). I put it in the tank in the morning, went to work, came home and took the clip out. I saw "dark sand" on the magnets and thought it was weird. upon closer inspection I found out there's bits of fine sand sized metal in the sand!!! And the magnets were at least half covered in it. So i'm hoping maybe this might be why i could never get my tank "dialed" in quite right? Any ideas would be appreciated. Anybody else ever checked if they had metal bits in their sand? To add, I do collect my own sand from the beach.

**secretreefer** · 06-16-2012, 06:15 PM

is this possibly why my corals don't have that "color" to them?

**secretreefer** · 06-16-2012, 09:45 PM

OK, reword my question. Is having quite a bit of "metal sand" in my tank bad?

**luvmyacans** · 06-16-2012, 09:49 PM

Never noticed any metal in mine. I suppose it depends on what metal it is...

**Reef Breeders** · 06-16-2012, 09:49 PM

Is it the black sand? They have biomagnetic pieces in them, they are not metal, some kind of mineral.

**secretreefer** · 06-16-2012, 10:03 PM

no it's just regular white beach sand but this dark bits of "sand" is mixed up with it. and it's is magnetic. mineral? oh no, i have to send this to a lab? LOL. what i actually did was order a large magnet so i can mix the sand and remove all the magnetic particles before putting it in the new tank. better safe than sorry. would it be like GFO mixed in the sandbed?

**mallorieGgator** · 06-16-2012, 11:35 PM

I have glass in mine. The last guy I think broke bulbs into the sand to "recycle" it.

**secretreefer** · 06-17-2012, 01:09 AM

Thanks Mal, woah, thatʻs a first time me hearing that! Iʻm trying to find out if the metals are leeching anything bad into the tank.

**mallorieGgator** · 06-17-2012, 08:25 AM

I would think that once the metals start to rust, they will leach bad stuff into the tank.

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**secretreefer** · 06-18-2012, 11:10 PM

yeah i was thinking that too. i wonder if this is what has been holding back my tank for years??? i've been using the same sand from the same collection site since i started SW and only found very very recently.

**mcarroll** · 06-22-2012, 03:35 AM

I've heard of this before and the suspected source was actually the teeth from the grinder used to process your rocks down in to sand.

After finding this, it became common practice to run some magnets around in new sand while rinsing it to remove as many of these metal fragments as possible. They will find their way onto your algae magnet, and the are sharp enough to scratch glass in a nice "N" pattern before you can say, "What the...!!!!"

-Matt

**secretreefer** · 06-27-2012, 10:09 PM

lol yup! i just got my large donut magnet so all sand in the new build will get a nice "magnet filtering".

**MaxCanada** · 06-28-2012, 04:54 PM

Should this be a common practise now with sand purchased from LFS?

**Chameleon** · 06-28-2012, 05:50 PM

Could be meteorites...I bet if you took a magnet and dragged it across your roof you would pick up a few meteorites...small ones.
I guess if you got the sand from the ocean there is no reason meteorites wouldn't be there.

**Ace25** · 06-28-2012, 06:23 PM

Seen metal end up in salt mixes quite frequently actually. Last time I saw it a couple months ago in Reef Crystals it was a piece the size of my pinky finger, all mangled and rusted, inside the bucket of salt. I have also had candy wrappers (text in chinese) and strips of plastic (like the plastic used in easter egg baskets) to name some of the other oddities I have recieved in salt.

**secretreefer** · 06-28-2012, 07:39 PM

Meteorites and candywrappers and easter egg basket fluff?!?!? holy cow! Cham, if they're meteorites should I send some samples to my local museum? i think they might be interested. i

**Chameleon** · 06-28-2012, 10:42 PM

I am serious about the meteorites. It really could be. Just google meteorite hunting and you will see how prevalent they are. Most are the size of sand or smaller. You really can find a bunch going over your roof with a magnet. Neodenyum rare earth magnets work best as they are super strong.

**secretreefer** · 06-29-2012, 04:28 PM

Cham, in no ways i was doubting you. I find that very very cool! Neodenyum magnets is what i'm using. I found a pretty good sized one last night attached. it definitely doesn't look "metal" and more like a tiny pebble. but it is magnetized so maybe i got lucky! i'll post a pic tonight!

**Dublo8** · 06-30-2012, 04:29 PM

I have had a paper clip in a large bucket of sand before as well as a girls fake fingernail. It was neon pink. I thought it just a broken shell of some sorts until I pulled it out and looked at it closer.