Alternative to buying all live sand?

I seen on here a guy posted that he bought some sand from home depot. Can i buy sand from home depot or some where else and maybe just add a little live sand, or is it dangerous to buy sand from home depot?

anyone have any advice? im just trying to save a few bucks

 

I am far from being an expert but you do not want to buy or use the type of sand that HD sells. The kind of sand that you want to use is of the crushed coral type. The sand that HD sells is a silica type sand and very bad for saltwater set ups.

 

Fish fan is right... HD ued to sell some sand that was ok. But its very hard to find now... Your best bet is to buy sand at your LFS and you can seed it with a few pounds of LS. My LFS gave me 2 pounds of LS to seed my tank. So maybe you can find someone for a freebe.

 

thanks for the replys. i figured as much, just thought i would ask

 

HD has a silica based sand which has sharp edges on it so it can be bad for some sand sifters(ie gobys). Sometimes HD or lowes carries what is called tropical play sand which is aragonite(Calcium Carbonate). Which I think what crushed coral is made of. I am running 160pounds in my 75. It works fine for me. I have the gas bubbles in the bed which I belive tell me it is alive. In 8months I will be moving and be switching to aragonite.

 

The sand you might get at home depot is called south down sand and it is a dry aragonite. Also some lfs in my area have bags of sand in 5 pound bags i cant quite remeber the name of it but its marked fresh and saltwater safe but comes in different colors. Blue, black, white , pink, green, yellow that i have seen it in. Ill have to try to get the name on that one. I have used both mixed with live sand and have had no problems with either one.

 

Southdown sand is now known as Yardright and can sometimes still be found in Home Depot stores, especially here on the east coast.

The Crab Street Journal: Products: YardRight Tropical Play Sand

FYI: A good test to see what commercially bagged sand is made out of is to pour some vinegar on the sand. If it bubbles, it's most likely aragonite.

 

Some sands are to fine and tend to compact to much- but if you are trying to save money you can find the below mentioned aragonite and seed it with a small amount of live sand purchased or if possible gotten from a friends tank!
In the 1st reef tank I setup I took my sand right out of the Gulf of Mexico- it worked just fine-

 

I got 40 bags of the Caribsea (400# total) for a 240 I set-up and maintain (x-boss) and it was excellent sand. It was bought from petland at $20 per 20# bag and it cycled right away. We moved rock, corals and fish from the tear-down 75 and all have done beautifully since-3 month mark.
For the price it is much better in the long run to look for a sand for reef tank from the start and avoid any trouble.

 

Thanks for the link, amcarrig! As a fellow New Englander I've been looking for the elusive Yardright version of cheap substrate for a while. Now I'll know what to look for.