I have a friend who has wanted a tank for years. Two months ago I gave him my old 40 gallon tank. A couple of days ago he called me up to look at the sand and live rock he got. When I got over there I saw this execelent looking live rock. Come to find out he went snorkeling and got all the rocks he could get. Then he filled up a bunch of buckets of sand from the beach in about 5 feet of water and put it all in the tank. I know this is highly illegal but are there any problems that could come from this. He has offered to give me some for my tank, but I first off I only believe in aquacultured corals and such. Second, I am worrried about putting this stuff in my tank. This rock and sand is all from off the beach in s. florida. I know this is wrong and I have been explaining this to him but can it hurt anything in his tank?
pros and cons of getting wild live rock and sand
- Thread starter smallreef1
- Start date
first thing is that you might get all sorts of stuff in there that you don't want, and another problem might be that it might not be live rock that you want. It's pretty easy to go to the ocean and get a ROCK, but that's not what you want. You need some dead coral, it looks like rock, smeels like a rock, but it's very porous and allows for good filtration.
As far as the sand I heard that sand from the ocean is OK, but not the one from the beach and I'm not sure why.
As far as the sand I heard that sand from the ocean is OK, but not the one from the beach and I'm not sure why.
Ignoring the fact that it is illegal; The rock and sand (especially the sand) could contain pollutants. The rock might also have unwanted hitchhikers. Other than that, as long as the rock is nice and porous, I don't see any 'problems'.
If he should definitely put in some media to absorb any pollutants, run carbon, run a good protein skimmer, and keep an eye out for hitchhikers. Oh, and keep mum about where he got the rock from.
If he should definitely put in some media to absorb any pollutants, run carbon, run a good protein skimmer, and keep an eye out for hitchhikers. Oh, and keep mum about where he got the rock from.
I did a lot of research on this a while back. Collecting live sand isnt illegal in florida. Collecting live rock is only illegal in coral reefs...i.e. collecting rocks from Jacksonville Fl isnt illegal....its stupid...for other reasons. Sand collected directly from the beach is more likely to contain pollutants (automobile fluids, rain runnoff carrying phosphates and fertalizers) than that of sand collected from further out. Plus the sand from ashore may not be aragonite and if this is the case it wont help balance his PH. I know the sand here in Jackassonville is silica based. As far as the rock do you have any pics? Not every creature from the ocean is "nice"
The biggest problem with collecting things from the wild is the fact that once you do, you can only get things from the wild. Fish and corals that have gone through the collection process have mostly been rid of paracites and pollutants.
I guess you could make an initial collection from the wild and go through an extensive sanitation process, but after you were done you couldn't collect again or you'd probably lose your entire stock.
I guess you could make an initial collection from the wild and go through an extensive sanitation process, but after you were done you couldn't collect again or you'd probably lose your entire stock.
Most collectors don't do anything more than go out and collect stuff and ship it out.Sponsor Reefs
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