ocean sand to put in my salt water tank?

Question

like at the edge of the water where its wet

Answer 1

Not recommended. You'll probably get a lot of answers discouraging this just because of the potential for pollutants and parasites and other undesirable critters (which are all good reasons not to use it), but beach sand doesn't fulfill all the benefits you get with the storebought "sand".

For one, what you get in pet stores, although called "sand" isn't the same as what you get at the beach. It's sand in grain size only. What you see on the beach is made up of quartz, which is inert- it doesn't react with the water in your tank. The material you buy in stores is made of aragonite, which is a calcium-magnesium carbonate. This reacts with the water to raise the pH to 7.8. A marine tank SHOULD have a pH of 8.2-8.4, but unless you live somewhere where the pH of your water is in that range, the aragonite keeps the pH from falling too quickly and may save your tank from crashing should the pH drop suddenly (from medications, topping off with lower pH water, metabolism of the fish you keep). So even though it's more expensive, the store-bought "sand" will do more for your tank than will what you get "free".


NOTE: The question in the link by the above answerer is for using the existing sand from a saltwater tank when converting to a freshwater tank, not using collected beach sand for a saltwater tank. Not quite the same situation.

Answer 2

I asked this question some time ago. Look in my history for the question and answers I got. Here is the link as well.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AuWPo1WLJwlXp7H2WkpS04jsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20070106205217AAVAKUf