Live Sand

[cutter2001]

So I live in far south Texas, and I’m wondering what the difference of driving up South Padre Island and harvesting sand from the beach vs. ordering it from Tampa Bay would be. Both are harvested from the Gulf of Mexico. I can’t imagine that Tampa Bay’s gulf waters are any more clean than Texas’ waters. Just wondering what R2R thinks about this.

 

[Baldyreef]

So I live in far south Texas, and I’m wondering what the difference of driving up South Padre Island and harvesting sand from the beach vs. ordering it from Tampa Bay would be. Both are harvested from the Gulf of Mexico. I can’t imagine that Tampa Bay’s gulf waters are any more clean than Texas’ waters. Just wondering what R2R thinks about this.

honestly I don't really see an difference with you harvesting yourself vs buying it from TBS but it may also depend where exactly you harvest from like from the shore or deeper water they might harvest from specific locations like near or in reefs

 

[cutter2001]

I do wonder if it lies in the sand composition, ie., Tampa sand is composed of calcium carbonate and Texas sand is quartz? Unsure.

 

[RoanokeReef]

TSB gets their out in the deeper water vs the beach which acts as a filter. I wouldn't use beach sand.

 

[DeepDiver55]

I don’t know if I’d trust sand from an SPI beach. Esp with the potential for oil contamination throughout the Gulf Coast. Deeper would be better. I’d ask of you have any scuba diving friends? But they usually dive around the oil rigs.

 

[BryanM]

It appears that it would be illegal to harvest sand from south padre.

 

[Danjoethepirate]

I do wonder if it lies in the sand composition, ie., Tampa sand is composed of calcium carbonate and Texas sand is quartz? Unsure.

Its mostly silicon dioxide, shell fragments,and heavy minerals because they don't travel far out to sea. What you want ideally is aragonite sand made from crushed corals skeletons, but the stuff from tampa is probably close in composition to your Texas beaches.

The difference may be in fauna. Microbes and microorganisms that that live in association with reefs.