Beach Sand as Substrate?

[a5610z]

Hi All,

Friend of mine has some medium grain sea sand (boiled and washed) as substrate for his planted 60G. His Discus seem pretty happy in there. Water parameters are stable and have been for 2 months now.

Im skeptical cos I know beach sand has a whole load of impurities, but fact is, it seems to work!?

Any Comments on this?

Cheers,
Jon

[RickMay1]

I don’t think the impurities would be the problem, after all, discus come from impure environments. Where he may have problems is what the sea sand is made of. It’s likely, depending on the beach, that the sand has a large amount of crushed coral/shells that will leach in to the water and play havoc with the hardness and ph of the water.

[judy]

But if it were sand from around a freshwater, interior loake, that would solve that problem, woudln't it? Still one should test it to ensure it doesn't do the bad fizzy, which means it'll whack out your Ph in no time!

[ed8t]

In our local forum, a member wiped out his tank of African cichlids by using beach sand. Tested the sand afterwards and found heavy metals content. Boiling sand will not remove metals from beach sand. It basically erodes fish gills over time, so they do suffer for some time before they die.

Playsand/pool filter sand is a safer option if you want the sand look.

[katt-ja]

RickMay1, i lovvvvve your picture! so cute <3

[a5610z]

Judy and Ed8t,

Thanks for replying.

So by testing, I assume you mean dropping some PH minus onto it to see if it froths?

And to test for heavy metals, well...I guess you could do a GH and KH (TDS also??)....but that wouldn't cover it all would it?

Jon

[Graham]

In our local forum, a member wiped out his tank of African cichlids by using beach sand. Tested the sand afterwards and found heavy metals content. Boiling sand will not remove metals from beach sand. It basically erodes fish gills over time, so they do suffer for some time before they die.

Playsand/pool filter sand is a safer option if you want the sand look.


How did he test for heavy metals..........Other than copper or iron how did he test for other heavy metals. like mercury, lead, cadmium zinc etc., Normally heavy metals poisoning affect the liver and the kidneys directly...not gills. The depressed immune system from renal failure may allow bacteria or parasites to attack but the HM didn't affect the gills directly.

Remind me not to swim on a beach in BC;)

Jon to test for shell for use a fairly strong acid...vinegar may do it but muriatic acid would be better.

[ed8t]

How did he test for heavy metals..........Other than copper or iron how did he test for other heavy metals. like mercury, lead, cadmium zinc etc., Normally heavy metals poisoning affect the liver and the kidneys directly...not gills. The depressed immune system from renal failure may allow bacteria or parasites to attack but the HM didn't affect the gills directly.

Remind me not to swim on a beach in BC;)



The poster didn't elaborate how he tested for heavy metals, just relaying the experience that he went through using beach sand.

I wouldn't swim nor eat anything caught in our local waters either. ;)

[Graham]

The poster didn't elaborate how he tested for heavy metals, just relaying the experience that he went through using beach sand.

I wouldn't swim nor eat anything caught in our local waters either. ;)

I wouldn't put a lot of faith into what the poster wrote it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Wild fish are caught al the time and they have all kinds of traces of toxins and heavy metals in the flesh, kidneys and liver...thier gills are fine...the odds are that the poster had a lot more going on that he had the experience for.

Some interesting reading...want to eat these fish

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080221/ts_afp/chinaenvironmentpollutionfishoffbeat