Collecting sand from the ocean

[Paul B]

(My fish loved them) Do you see many loose live muscle clumps that are detached into singles or groups of 2or 3 on your coastline?

Yes I do. :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:
We also get scallops and oysters. :)

 

[keepingfishwithnoidea]

It works with no worries if the beach is not very polluted like my area

 

[wunderlong88]

Diver collected live sand will have will have different micro fauna & fana than diver collected live rock.

https://gulfliverock.com/hitchhiker-id“Real live sand from the Gulf of Mexico. Our Sand is taken in close proximity to our reef to ensure that our sand is actually "Live". Collected in 30 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico. Live sand helps provide a food source for certain species.”

Also, depending on your diversity of inverts, I suggest some live mud from IndoPacific SeaFarm

http://ipsf.com/

Thank you! I am looking at getting live rock from Gulf or from the place in Tampa that ships it in water. Will check on the mud and live sand you linked.

Do you @Subsea or @Paul B have a general guidelines for setting up a tank that would be what you would recommend for someone trying to go a more natural route and more in keeping with what you guys have done? Not looking for brands or specific equipment just a general list of what is important (i.e. filtration types/options, protein skimmer yes or no?, etc)

I kept a140 gal reef tank for 5 years (25 years ago). We did good I thought and didn't QT or hardly know what we were doing. But we had a good well that apparently was high enough in calcium to grow lots of coralline and our easy lowlight corals did well. Our protein skimmer was crap so probably useless and not great lights. We had a large refugium full of some kind of macro algae. It was lovely with many fish and a garden of softies and doing well when we broke it down at 5 years and sold it all.

I don't have time to understand the depths of how all of this works (like the link you posted, which I did read most of) but I do understand a bit about bacteria because I have done a lot with fermentation and a lot of reading on it. I do want to understand with my limited to time and hopefully I will someday know more of the science behind these things but I can learn as I hopefully mimic what y'all know and have experienced.

I would rather invest in healthy living sand, water, rock, mud, macroalgaes, good feeding, etc instead of chemicals and over sanitary practices that might not be the route for non-QT and am willing to do what I should about equipment but am wondering about you and @Paul B rec's. I am happy letting the tank mature before adding too many things too quickly to help go this route. I don't live where i had the well, although I have access to it if I just want to fill my tank with it initially. My water comes from a local creek and definitely could have chemicals so I would need to RO or RO/DI. I make one trip a year to the Texas coast and could collect things and bring back if it was helpful.

Thank you for your time!

 

[Subsea]

@wonderlong88

OK. I would not stray far from your first success.

You don’t have to know how the clock works to tell time.

Both Paul & I use reverse flow under-gravel filter. We keep substrate at about 2”. I use aroggonite with 0.1mm to 1mm in diameter.

Paul uses a protein skimmer, I don’t.

Paul does not have a refugium, I have a cryptic sponge & mud filter.

Paul has a lot of fish, I don’t

 

[BryanM]

I am setting up a ~170 gal reef tank. If I bring home some sand from the ocean to help seed it out, how much should I bring? Do I want only shallow sand or is some of the darker dirtier sand helpful for beneficial organisms and bacteria? Can I use only this or should I still buy commercial sand? If so, what are some sand options? I don't think I need it to be live because I am going to purchase quite a bit of live rock, not sure how much yet, still researching that.

I am planning for live rock, fish, soft corals and inverts.

I've read both good and bad.

I would only do this if you could dive, and get some distance away from the beach.

 

[Faurek]

Only take sand from a beach that no people go there, otherwise you will be dumping a lot of chemicals including sunscreen on your tank. I did this years ago, and it worked fine and had a great start from the microfauna except for the flow part so I took it out in weeks.

 

[wunderlong88]

I've read both good and bad.

I would only do this if you could dive, and get some distance away from the beach.

I can and do dive. May be in Belize in the next year.

 

[wunderlong88]

@wonderlong88

OK. I would not stray far from your first success.

You don’t have to know how the clock works to tell time.

Both Paul & I use reverse flow under-gravel filter. We keep substrate at about 2”. I use aroggonite with 0.1mm to 1mm in diameter.

Paul uses a protein skimmer, I don’t.

Paul does not have a refugium, I have a cryptic sponge & mud filter.

Paul has a lot of fish, I don’t

Thank you. Should I clean detrius from the sand? I read the mulm thread.

 

[areefer01]

I don't have time to understand the depths of how all of this works

Onus is in the hobbyist to make the time. Probably one reason why this hobby has such a high attrition rate. Also I don't believe it has been said but some places it is illegal to remove sand or rocks. If in doubt easy to call fish and game and get their take on it. Marine parks, reserves, etc.

Diving weekend here in Monterey. Beach entry has beautiful sand none of which we can take.

 

[Justin D]

Hi do not try and cut any corners and try to save money there is a reason why people by the sand from fish stores call 3 fish stores ask them that question and when they tell you will understand why

 

[betareef]

Using stuff from local beaches and rockpools etc (even diving) comes down to having the knowledge to be able to look around and see if the habitat is healthy and pollution free. You have to know what "normal" is for the area, and avoid times when the system is upset from bad weather and human activities. For the latter, it's better if that never happens at all.

 

[CoastalTownLayabout]

Using stuff from local beaches and rockpools etc (even diving) comes down to having the knowledge to be able to look around and see if the habitat is healthy and pollution free. You have to know what "normal" is for the area, and avoid times when the system is upset from bad weather and human activities. For the latter, it's better if that never happens at all.

Nailed it.

If you decide to go down this route you’ll be killing two birds with one stone. An appreciation of the coastal and marine systems in your area and how these can translate to the evolution and overall success of your tank. Both good and bad.

Don’t be discouraged by the naysayers. There’s still room in this hobby for different approaches.

 

[Subsea]

Thank you. Should I clean detrius from the sand? I read the mulm thread.

Depends on where detritus is. In my case, I allow it to accumulate in my sump, which is a cryptic refugium. In 25 years, mud filter has increased by 1/2”.

 

[Paul B]

I would not use beach sand from US beaches unless it's maybe Florida. I don't know what the sand looks like in Texas. But Our New York sand is much to fine and your tank will crash quickly.

I use NY watrer but I just got burned with my last batch because it must have had a lot of nitrogen in it from all the farms and golf courses here so I have a huge amount of hair algae that I am eliminating now but it takes time.

You can add just about anything to your tank from the sea, there isn't going to be that much pollution on something you find. No Oldsmobile fenders or iron light poles.

Any rocks are great for bacteria especially construction waste like cinder blocks or pieces. You can use them on the bottom so you don't see it.

I add amphipods all the time with a little mud. Thats all the biodiversity you need.

Don't add fiddler crabs

 

[Faurek]

Hi do not try and cut any corners and try to save money there is a reason why people by the sand from fish stores call 3 fish stores ask them that question and when they tell you will understand why

You will understand that stores want to sell you snake oil, yes.
It has been done before and it will still be in the future. Why? If you know where to look for it's established sand with more biome then LFS live sand. The biggest difference is grain size and type of sand.
Some builds will be a no good, some builds will be the perfect stuff.

 

[Just John]

I have purchased from here twice before: https://tbsaltwater.com/search?q=sand&options[prefix]=last
In one tank I used both rock and sand and for the other I just bought the sand. In my opinion it was definitely worth it based on this - I had a horrible case of dinos that lasted for months. At one point I had removed all the sand and later decided to buy live sand from them and a few small pieces of live rock. Within a week or so the dinos were gone.
If you buy from them I would recommend asking for well graded/sieved (not sure what you would call it) sand. One time I got it and all the grains were the same size, but the next time it had a ton of shell pieces in it and I had to use a kitchen strainer to get them out.

 

[OrionN]

Do you mean sand from the beach? I wouldn’t put anything in the tank from the ocean because you don’t know what it contains or has absorbed over time. Plus beach sand is almost all silica and will cause diatom blooms in your tank. Your best bet is just to buy live rock or get it from a fellow reefer if you want it to seed your tanks Happy reefing!

Silica sand is fine. No problem. I collect sand from the Gulf of Mexico, (I mean America) and use it for my tank and it is fine, better than fine. I collect sand in the water at low tide, so the sand where I collect is always under the water. I got lots of fauna in the sand. I also put the LR in the bay of Corpus Christi for months before I put it into my tank. My tank is absolutely full of fauna and doing great. Go some undesirable but nothing I cannot handle. Mainly Aiptasia and small crabs.

 

[Paul B]

Wunderlong, I posted a thread on this site about my idea of how to set up an immune tank. It's here:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/imo-how-to-set-up-a-tank-to-be-healthy-and-immune.1047355/

 

[Paleozoic_reefer]

Silica sand is fine. No problem. I collect sand from the Gulf of Mexico, (I mean America) and use it for my tank and it is fine, better than fine. I collect sand in the water at low tide, so the sand where I collect is always under the water. I got lots of fauna in the sand. I also put the LR in the bay of Corpus Christi for months before I put it into my tank. My tank is absolutely full of fauna and doing great. Go some undesirable but nothing I cannot handle. Mainly Aiptasia and small crabs.

This is great to know! I’ll have to bring some back the next time I’m in Corpus!

 

[Subsea]

Silica sand is fine. No problem. I collect sand from the Gulf of Mexico, (I mean America) and use it for my tank and it is fine, better than fine. I collect sand in the water at low tide, so the sand where I collect is always under the water. I got lots of fauna in the sand. I also put the LR in the bay of Corpus Christi for months before I put it into my tank. My tank is absolutely full of fauna and doing great. Go some undesirable but nothing I cannot handle. Mainly Aiptasia and small crabs.

In 1970, I set up my first marine tank. It was a Galveston Bay ecosystems and my first attempt at live rock was an oyster cluster with numerous filter feeding barnacles. I carried that oyster cluster around for five years.