Sand from a nearby beach?

[SpanishFlea]

Hi, I'm about to set up an Apisto tank - I had one a few years ago with a gravel substrate, but this time I'd like to use sand. Are there any risks in collecting sand from a nearby (clean) beach for my tank? What, if any, preparation would such sand need if usable? Would beach sand have any effect on my tank's pH? And would it be advisable to add anything to the sand to promote plant growth?

Thanks in advance!

 

[jose_vogel]

I won´t use sand from the seashore (it will have crushed corals or crushed shells that will modified your conductivity, hardness and PH).

For planted tanks I used laterite (1.000 miles from my city we have a lot of laterite):

First layer -the bottom one- (1 inch): neutral silica sand 70% and laterite 30%
Second layer (2 inches): just neutral silica sand.


Bye

 

[lab]

Another thing about beach sand is that the grains tend to pack tightly together, creating an anaerobic (oxygen depleted) environment with time.

 

[Gillie]

It could probably be done using sand that fine if you incorporate a healthy population of Malaysian trumpet snails to turn the sand over. Also the sand could get sucked into the filtration if disturbed enough and possibly damage it. I had thought of this when I first went to sand and also went with silica sand.

 

[Apistomaster]

I have used sand/fine rounded gravels I sieved from a local stream that was mainly composed of basalt. It was almost indistinguishable from the Eco Complete ready to use substrate. Unfortunately it contained enough other minerals that affected the pH and hardness by increasing both over time.
Too bad because it really seemed to be appreciated by the plants. I mainly kept Echinodorus species and hybrids. E. bleheri, E. amazonicus, E. parviflora var. "Tropica" and Kleiner Bar.

I live in an area where the boundaries of several different major geological regions meet so I have many more streams to sample and maybe one will turn out to be more inert.
Ocean beach sand is always going to contain a lot of calcareous material even if the gradation is aquarium suitable. It is possible to collect samples of interesting substrates from various fresh water streams and allow them to soak in RO/DI water for a week or month then test the water to see whether it causes the pH and TDS to change too much too use. It takes time but one might get lucky and find a naturally available substrate suitable for aquarium use. I am fairly sure I will find something I can use but I have many areas that are geologically substantially different not too far from where I live.
My default substrate for SA Dwarf Cichlids is the easily obtain silica sand used in sand blasting. I never use a layer more than 1/2 inch because it is very fine but it is dense enough that it is easy to clean with small the med size hydro Vac siphons. This sand is widely available and cheap. It is similar to the sand shown if many Apistogramma with fry photos in Aqualog SA Cichlids II.