# Beach Sand In A Freshwater tank



## VanWylder24 (Feb 16, 2005)

Hi, I was planning on buying sand to put in my 135 gallon tank I live a mile from the beach and figured why not just go take some free beach sand and obviously wash it out extensively. Is there any way that this won't work or my fish will die?


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

It depends... it may boost your pH since its from the ocean... since I dont live near a beach so I haven't done it before. Also there can be a lot of organics (sticks/floating particals) in beach sand... you may need to clean it more than you think.


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## Damon (Jan 18, 2005)

Agreed. There's no telling what jind of pathogens are in the sand and what affect it could have on your water quality. I would just spend the 4 bucks and get some playsand from home depot or Lowes.


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## VanWylder24 (Feb 16, 2005)

Damn, alright thanks for the help, it was worth a shot. I didnt realize sand from Home Depot was that cheap, im used to getting ripped off on gravel from the fish stores.


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## google (Jan 27, 2005)

there'll b yucky stuff in the sand


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## MyraVan (Jan 19, 2005)

You can just get gravel from the garden shop. I got a bag of "alpine gravel" ( little pieces suitable for putting around little alpine plants) for 2 quid (which is something like $3.50).


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## Mr Aquarium (Jan 18, 2005)

I recall back in the days of the old Rock Corries when you could drive in there and Buy 
"clean sand"
Not Play sand, Clean sand for sand-boxes,,,,,I remember this as being a very nice white colored sand you could play in all day and not get any kind of dirty from.
Of Course this was like 35 years ago to.....


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## Cichlid Man (Jan 19, 2005)

Even though not highly recommended, two of my tanks have sand from the beach, but I live in the south of England so I don't know what your sand's like. I also filtered and boiled the sand with making a thorough pH and ammonia test before adding it to my tanks though.
(Besides, its a lot cheaper when you want to keep eels in a 6 foot tank that need lots of sand anyway).


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