Natural sand?

[Aquascaper]

Can you use sand straight from the beach?

I live on the south coast of england and the beaches are nice and clean

 

[The-Wolf]

For a marine tank? then yes you can.

First you need to check with the local council if it is ok to take some, the beach may have a protection order on it or some other bylaw you are not aware of.
Second make sure you clean it thoroughly, you don't want any nasty diseases cropping up in your tank.
HTH

 

[Navarre]

You can use it but you wil lose the benefit of buffering that coral sand or aragonite will give you.
I live in the Sothwest of UK and our sand is beautiful and fine in some areas to rough grains of granite in others. However, even though i use natural seawater from our coastline I do not use the sand as it doesnt offer the buffer. I prefer to have as much natural buffers in the tank as possible to keep PH stable.


Also you will need to test it vigourously. Porthleven is a beach near me and its lovely clean sand. However, years ago a large Oil tanker crashed near there (Loads of oil tankers crash near Cornwall ) ) and tons of Oil deposits are now buried roughly 50ft under the sand. The sand looks clean but when tests are done the Phosphates and nitrates are off the scale

 

[Aquascaper]

Thanks for the replies. I think i'll stick to coral sand as Navarre suggested, it's not worth the risk just to save a few £'s