Sand from the beach?

I wouldn't. You don't know what kind of contaminates are in there. I would save up for some sand, or look into a local reef club and see if someone can hook you up for cheap. However, you may want to seriously think about saving for a while - if you cannot afford sand, the rest of the hobby does not get any cheaper. Sand was one of my cheapest purchases.

 

ive pretty much bought everything else i understand the cost, i have done SW before.

 

sand is about as rare as dirt. I would only worry about impurities and so on.
Just dont get caught walking away with 100 lbs of sand from the beach, your local authorities probably wont think its as funny as we would

 

I know it's not rare. It's just probably not legal, so yeah.

 

Try taking sand in most places in Florida, if you get caught, you're in some trouble. Fine costs way more than buying the sand. Not sure out in Cali.

 

haha i would have to get mine from a pond... i have no beaches....kansas........

 

Check out fijisandman on ebay. He has dry and "live" carribean reef sand and usually tosses in some live sand and like a half pound of culture rock even with a dry sand purchase... I got my sand from quikrete, damn diatoms

 

i just bought 120 pounds of live sand from Doctor Foster Smith for around 95.00. Its pretty cheap right now, and shipping is only 5.99. I would recommend going with that, think about all of the nasty crap that washes up on the beach! You dont want that stuff in your tank. Plus when the professionals collect the sand, they do it offshore underwater.

 

I got mine in 40 feet of water on southshore in BDA. free.........couldnt imagine paying $100 for sand..