Here in Cape Cod for the week and wondering if it would be ok to add sand collected from the beach to my tank? If so, anything I need to be concerned about (ie: would I need to cure it somehow?) or would it be fine if I transported it in a bucket with salt water?
sand from the beach for tank?
- Thread starter LaurieC
- Start date
You would add all the contaminants and parasites from the beach in to your tank.
This sand is silica based and not aragonite based so it would not offer the same buffeting potential.
Being silica based it has a jagged shape that can scratch glass or acrylic really easy. Oolitic sand is round and better against glass.
If you were in the Bahamas you would have a better quality sand. As that is the same type of sand that we use in tanks.
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This sand is silica based and not aragonite based so it would not offer the same buffeting potential.
Being silica based it has a jagged shape that can scratch glass or acrylic really easy. Oolitic sand is round and better against glass.
If you were in the Bahamas you would have a better quality sand. As that is the same type of sand that we use in tanks.
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- Location
- Duluth, Minnesota
Laurie
Well, I'm not all wowed on your choice of sand
CC sand is a different beast of sand CC is actually the End Moraine of Pleistocene Laurentian Ice Sheet. Think of it like a big bulldozer that started in Canada and pushed all that stuff to the Atlantic Coast and left a big pile there. Its composition can be quite complex and will have many rock fragments in sand sizes. Being a young sand most of these will be what we call poorly sorted and angular. These same sands are also more subjected to what we call "soil crusts" which can be very inconspicuous. Their biology is composed of a number of algae and micro-organisms, which to this day we do not know what their real roll is in beach sand biology. These same sands also have a high seed density. Using such a sand would have to be screened and sterilized and checked for pure copper deposits. Allot of this sand originated from that glacier grinding up rocks form Canada, which are mostly from the Precambrian Laurentian Shield.
Well, I'm not all wowed on your choice of sand
CC sand is a different beast of sand CC is actually the End Moraine of Pleistocene Laurentian Ice Sheet. Think of it like a big bulldozer that started in Canada and pushed all that stuff to the Atlantic Coast and left a big pile there. Its composition can be quite complex and will have many rock fragments in sand sizes. Being a young sand most of these will be what we call poorly sorted and angular. These same sands are also more subjected to what we call "soil crusts" which can be very inconspicuous. Their biology is composed of a number of algae and micro-organisms, which to this day we do not know what their real roll is in beach sand biology. These same sands also have a high seed density. Using such a sand would have to be screened and sterilized and checked for pure copper deposits. Allot of this sand originated from that glacier grinding up rocks form Canada, which are mostly from the Precambrian Laurentian Shield.
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- Location
- Duluth, Minnesota
oops, that forum Gremlin is playing games with mea again
End Moraine, not End Marine
End Moraine, not End Marine
- Location
- Duluth, Minnesota
Yes Laurie it is a cool sand but to me all and sand is cool as my main interests in geology is sands Bahamas sand or lets say Bahama Bank sands are an extra cool sand in their origin, being they are oolitic aragonitic sands. And the actual means how they were formed is still pretty much a puzzle but at least there some good theories based on lab studies.
Bahamas sand or lets say Bahama Bank sands are an extra cool sand in their origin, being they are oolitic aragonitic sands. And the actual means how they were formed is still pretty much a puzzle but at least there some good theories based on lab studies.Bahamian sand is one of the reef industries sources for sand. The argonite composition is what gives it the buffering potential. As for its origin, I have read that it is the calcified exoskeleton of a cyto bacteria.
If Laurie doesnt mind me hi-jacking her post I would like to know your input on that.
If Laurie doesnt mind me hi-jacking her post I would like to know your input on that.
- Location
- Duluth, Minnesota
Aragonite sands do not buffer a seawater solution and is a old myth. The amount it adds to Alk or C a++ can hardly even be measured. Aragonitic sands that are fresh can actually de-buffer the water lowering the pH, Alk and Ca++, due to the precip of Hi-Magnesium Calcite, know as "surface over-growths" or "surface poisons". I'm sure you have heard of 'clumping sands', this is one of their origins. We would be lucky if that sand adds a couple % points to the total Ca++ and Alk demand. However, if the pH is in very low 8's into the 7's and the Alk is low, like 1 meq / l and the Ca++ is very low, like less than 350 ppm, more will dissolve. As pH, Alk and Ca++ fall the dissolution of CaCO3 increases. With all that said it is till the best choice IMHO and tears bio-turbation fauna less.
I have read that it is the calcified exoskeleton of a cyto bacteria.
That is one of the ways. But all aragonite sand is not formed that way. Some is formed via a "snow-ball" effect from sand sloshing/swashing: i.e., grains rolling back and forth like a snow ball rolling down a hill and getting bigger. Many of these have a internal nuclei, so accretion seems to follow the rule here. There are also different kinds of layering, which in some points to biogenic formation, such as algae/bacteria/cyano or algae/etc. assistance and maybe endolithic or epilithic algae/b/c. Most of it formed this way seems to point to Cyano.
I have read that it is the calcified exoskeleton of a cyto bacteria.
That is one of the ways. But all aragonite sand is not formed that way. Some is formed via a "snow-ball" effect from sand sloshing/swashing: i.e., grains rolling back and forth like a snow ball rolling down a hill and getting bigger. Many of these have a internal nuclei, so accretion seems to follow the rule here. There are also different kinds of layering, which in some points to biogenic formation, such as algae/bacteria/cyano or algae/etc. assistance and maybe endolithic or epilithic algae/b/c. Most of it formed this way seems to point to Cyano.
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