Friend of mine suggested to just go to the beach to collect sand for my DSB, that what he did for his in Maine. Curious if this is safe, and or legal?

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10 gallon fresh setup with 1 giant danio, 3 placos, and 1 guppie.
30 gal bare bottom QT
55 gallon salt setup with a bunch of crabs and snails. false perc clown, diamond goby, lawnmower blenny, a green mandarin, and 1 cleaner shrimp. And a few corals
180 gallon acrylic not setup yet. (Need a few more things before it gets filled with water.)
Tanks not setup, 10, 30, 55 with stand. Either 30 or the 55 will be the sump for the 180

I wouldn't use it just because you never know what is in the sand. If humans are around there could be harmful things in there.......such as chemicals dumped in the sand....things like that. Pick up a bag of sugar sized oolite sand at petsmart or petco. I wouldn't buy the live sand because your sand will become live anyways after you put live rock in there.

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Chris

There may also be some parasites in the sand that would be harmful for your fish. So yea, just buy some. You could try it but dont be disappointed if there are some ill effects later.

Good concerns. I figured being in Florida, I could travel to various beaches, and find something different. (Would have been an excuse to go to the keys! LOL) I would have grabbed wet stuff to avoid human waste/contaminants.

But to avoid issues down the road, I'll just buy some. 125 or 180 gallon for a 6" bed might get expensive though. LOL

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10 gallon fresh setup with 1 giant danio, 3 placos, and 1 guppie.
30 gal bare bottom QT
55 gallon salt setup with a bunch of crabs and snails. false perc clown, diamond goby, lawnmower blenny, a green mandarin, and 1 cleaner shrimp. And a few corals
180 gallon acrylic not setup yet. (Need a few more things before it gets filled with water.)
Tanks not setup, 10, 30, 55 with stand. Either 30 or the 55 will be the sump for the 180

True........I think a 20 pound bag is like $15. Another reason is you just don't know what kind of unwanted critters or parasites could be in the sand. It will cost more to buy it, but at least you know it is good to go, and you won't have any unwanted troubles starting out. I have a 29 gallon (biocube) reef tank, and it took one bag, so you are looking at about 4 to 5 bags for a 125 gal. It will be worth it though......the sugar sized sand looks amazing. Another tip.......make sure you rinse the sand before you put it in your tank. It will get a lot of dust out of the sand, and cut down the time it takes to filter it out. Just put it in a bucket or some type of container and stick your water hose in there and just let it run for like 30 min. Just let the water run out of the container onto the ground. Probably the thing that is going to cost you the most money is the live rock. You will need roughly a pound of live rock per gallon of water, and some of the rock can be 5 bucks a pound. But, if you look around you can find people maybe getting out of the hobby who will sell it cheap. Try looking on craigslist. I bought mine off of a guy for $2 a pound......in the store it is 5 or 6 bucks. Plus it came out of an established tank which is always good. Just make sure you add all of the live rock in before you start cycling because if you don't and you add a bunch of rock in later it will cause your tank to go through another cycle. If you do have to add more later......do it in small amounts at a time. Good luck, and if you have any other questions I will try and help you out. I am fairly new to the hobby (about 6 months), but I have learned a lot in that time, and my first saltwater tank is a success.

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Chris