sinead

Hi all, just wondering is sand from a nearby beach ok to use in a freshwater aquarium? prob seems like a silly question

Jim

no, it is a very good question, and my personal opinion is no, unless you clean it exceptionally well. You have a huge chance of some microorganisms or debris mixed in that could cause future problems, not to mention salt. If it were me I'd spend the couple bucks on a bag of sand instead of taking the risk.

Shawnie

im with jim...and sand is so cheap and much more safe..IMO theres too many things in beach sand as well as polution that we see daily washed up cant be good.....goodluck

andy65

I'm with the people above me. Just get pool filter sand. That is what my mom and brother used. $8 US for 50 US Lbs of it.

sirdarksol

Definitely an excellent question, and one that comes up periodically. As the above folks said, there's just too much of a chance of something that you don't want in your tank coming along.

rubberneck

ive used it in the past,,,the beach sand has a much diff look than the store bought stuff ,,,,i go more for the crushed shells, gives a good look ,,just rinse well and get the salt out

Lucy

I imagine it would be pretty, but I wouldn't take the chance.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but can't shells effect your pH?

pepetj

I guess it depends. Once you rule out polutants, you could consider it, as long as you are careful.
If you have a low to very low pH, and soft to very soft water, well rinsed beach sand might be helpful in releasing some minerals that would help you raising them (pH, GH, KH) a bit. But if your water is hard to very hard, and your pH is quite high, it might not be a good idea.
On the other hand, if your water hardness and pH are within medium/neutral range, you could use regular sand at the bottom, and use a somewhat thin layer of beach sand on top (say 3/4").
Other combinations, e.g. elevated pH and soft water, or low pH in medium to hard water might be more difficult (at least to me) to handle.
In any case I would try that without fish in the tank. But it could work out.

By the way, I use river sand (from nature, but from highly unlikely to be poluted water sources), takes a lot of effort to rinse (not only to make the water clear, but to remove organic things -e.g. debries, undesired inverts)

Pepe
Santo Domingo