I agree...I live less than 2 minutes from the ocean and would never use the sand. It is so easy to transfer parasites or other nasties by getting it off of the shoreline. If you were to use it, it would need to be quarentined just to be safe. Also, like Jon mentioned, you'd need to find out if it is legal in your area. I've seen about a 350 gal tank that my friend took care of be totally wiped out here in the Bahamas from the guy putting in live sand from the beach. It was loaded with some wierd type of worm from what he told me, that would wipe out any livesotck that went in so be careful if you do it. Just a thought...