Ocean Sand safe for freshwater tank?

Ok so I just got back from a short trip to Ocean City NJ and I grabbed a sandwich bag of sand from the pathway while I was there being the sand collector that I am. It is very fine and would be cool in a bowl. My plan is to have a walstad 1 gallon bowl with some RCS and the dirt capped with this sand. I just want to be sure that the sand is ok to use in a freshwater setup since it came from the shore. Any ideas on if it will work and how to make it safe if it won't?

 

You might have to soak and rinse it for awhile, my only concern is the salt contents.

 

Yeah that's what I was thinking. How would I get the salt out? Just rinse it a lot?

 

and probably soak, empty, soak, empty repeat process....one trick to see if you got all the salt...is taste the water but I'm sure you wouldn't want to do that.

 

Haha I would probably do it. Just not drink it haha and I shouldn't get sick. I just don't wanna loose all the sand because its so fine. I guess I could let it settle then dump it or something. I'll figure it out.

 

My concern wouldn't be the salt, but other contaminants that may be in it. If it was on a pathway, there is no way of knowing what it may have been exposed to.

The salt can easily be removed with warm/hot water.

 

I can send you some California sand, I live a couple miles from the beach.

 

Haha that's very kind but I'll stick with this for now. Maybe later I'll take you up on that if I need some for my future 29 gallon. Thanks
How could I get the other possible contaminants out?

Ok well I set up the bowl. Got some potting soil and washed it a bit then after soaking the sand for like half a day in hot water and changing the water every hour or so I put that on top and filled it. I vacuumed out the junk that was left over and put in some floating najas, a tiny bit of micro swords and some flame moss. I'm soaking some apple tree twigs now and I'll put them in with moss on them once they sink. It should look pretty cool if the plants can survive the sand. Then if they live for a bit I'll put in some RCS or a ghost shrimp or two if that would work.

 

Cool...looking forward in seeing it. How is your friend's shrimp tank?

 

Haha I was actually just talking to him saying send some more pics so I can update it. I should have a new update by tonight or tomorrow if he doesn't answer tonight.

Ok so the bowl looks pretty cool now... the sticks aren't sinking yet but hopefully that won't take too much longer. Now for NPT bowls that have no surface agitation it is good to have plants that break the surface for more oxygen right?

Ok here are some pictures so far:




Yeah so if anyone knows a good plant that breaks the surface or a good small floating plant other than duckweed let me know.

 

Good morning,

Dwarf Water Lettuce:



Regular Water Lettuce:


Great plant! I have the Dwarf and it spreads like crazy!

Ken

 

Ok thanks

 

I have common salvinia and it grows like a weed

maybe frogbit

 

Which of the three do you think would be best in a 1 gallon bowl? I don't want the roots so long they choke out the plants on the bottom. I just want a small shallow floating plant and if there aren't any that are small enough a plant that starts in the substrate and grows out of the water too would be neat.

 

Common Salvinia roots don't grow that long, but they do multiple fast and might block the light from the surface, but if you are not oppose to doing weekly maintenance to weed them out then I would suggest it.

Have you thought about a banana plant? They start at the substrate and shoot their leaves to the surface

 

I have one in my 2.5 and it has never had a leaf over like 2 inches tall. It stays low. I want a plant that will bring lots of O2 into the tank.

Ok so I did some reading and found out that flame moss will grow out of water as well. So here is my plan: have some stick that stick out of the water with flame moss on them. Eventually the moss will cover the stick and hopefully grow out of the water. I don't know how well it will work but we will see. I have a bunch of apple tree sticks soaking in a bucket now. I don't know how I will get the bark off since they are just little twigs. I hope they sink by the time I get back from Maine. We will be away for a few days so hopefully the sticks will be ready by the time we get back. Also I put a 14 watt CFL bulb over the bowl and will give it probably 10 to12 hours of light. I want the micro swords to get a good hold in the sand. I just hope I don't get too much algae but we will see. I will be getting the RCS in there eventually so they can eat any algae that grows along with some pond snails.

Ok so I have put in pond snails twice for this bowl. Each time almost all the snails died within a day or so of being put in the tank. I did just take them from my 15 gallon and drop them in but I figured that the water parameters would be pretty close. Could that have killed them? Some of the wood is finally sinking but it has white fuzz all over and I'm not sure it is ok to use. I started another thread about this so if anyone has any ideas about what is causing that or how it can be fixed let me know. I also added more micro swords so hopefully they will start rooting good soon.

 

Have you tested the water yet in the bowl?

 

Nope. I will do that soon though. I'll post it in asap.

Wow. The one time I don't test before adding inhabitants the ammonia is almost .5 ppm and the nitrite is 1 ppm. I didn't even bother testing nitrates. I feel sooooo smart right now. Oh well I guess I'll just give it time to cycle and keep testing and once ammonia and nitrites are down I'll add snails again. And these readings are after a water change I can imagine them before.

 

Happens in a dirted tank unless you plant heavily in the beginning. That is why I asked if you tested it, how is your friends Walstad tank?

 

Gotcha. His is great... I'll do an update on that thread now.

Ok here is the bowl with more swords added:

 

I have that same bowl that I got from Michaels.

 

Haha cool yeah I got mine from my neighbor. He wasn't using it so he said I could use it until he needed it and if that setup is still running when he needs it I'll buy him a new one. I think its one gallon

 

Ok well unfortunately I had to tear down the bowl, it got all algae covered and everything I put in would die even after I got the ammonia and nitrites to 0. Maybe the ocean sand is just no good for use in a freshwater tank? I don't know but I'm pretty sure that I will not be risking using it in my 36 gallon when I set that up.

 

Good afternoon,

See post #2 by Nutter in the link below:


Ken

 

I agree with the post ken referred to above. There is so many particles of stuff that isn't "sand" from the beach, especially here in the mid-atlantic area. And, you specified from a walking path, probably even worse. Oh well, you gave it a good try. I'm sure you could take PFS or play sand and grind it down (mortar and pestle) to make it more fine and silky smooth, but that may be a lot of work for 36lbs!

 

Haha yeah I'd like to set the tank up this decade... Thanks for the advice I'll stick with mixing store bought sands. Any good recommendations you guys like?

 

Blasting Black Sand is very cheap

 

Ok thanks. Right now I have a course white sand in my 15 gallon. I think since I already have it I'll hold onto that and maybe use it. I was thinking maybe I could add some pinkish sand and some tan sand of the same type to get a more natural look? I'm not sure how that would look.