Can you use any kind of sand for a saltwater aquairum or dose it have to be live sand

OK, there are always a lot of questions regarding the different types of sands available on the market. Why are some better than others? It depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Live sand from certain oceans contain different types of properties giving you different traits to your tanks. Some with have traces of differenct coraline algaes, giving you different colors to your tank. What it really comes down to is the size of the grain of sand. Too small or large will cause distrubances in the denitrification process. Fish sands are often of crushed coral giving you a whiter look with a buffering source, however most aquarist use enough buffers and additives to be equal. I've used crushed coral that was coarse, crushed coral sand, and your typical home depot sand. If you put live rock, plants, corals or just about anything, within a few months, all of the sand will be "live sand". It's basically the same stuff you buy in the store for those purposes. Live sand simply means that the bacteria has traveled to it. Live rock doesn't have to be from Fiji or Tonga, It can be a red brick put in your tank that has live rock or sand and the living creatures will soon inhabit the brick. I had 2 live rock tanks and wanted a 3rd, but money was getting tight. Instead of buying the "live sand", I bough play sand from Home Depot or your local hardware store, and cleaned the heck out of it. Put it in the tank and put some live rock in it. After a few months, it was no different than any of my other two tanks. No further care, nothing. The exact same thing, other than the color had a bit more of a yellow tint to it, of which was hardly noticeable unless you were running back and forth between tanks to ensure the same color. To me it's more of a visible preference and if you don't mind the color, you won't feel the difference in upkeep. Many will tell you that it has to be from the oceans, OK, fine, but when you buy it, it can come dry and also wet. Wet is packed with beneficial bacteria, but what about the dry? It has no bacteria, but when you add it to an existing tank it becomes the same thing as live sand. So, it doesn't matter what you put in it as it will soon become live, but make sure it's the same grain as they have in the stores or close and you should be fine. Again, I experienced it no matter what I heard and it worked just fine for me. When doing my research, I found some were saying absolutely no, while others were saying to go for it and why spend the extra money. It worked for me! What's the worse that could happen? If you don't like it, your going to have to tear down your tank and buy the stuff from a pet store - 20lbs/$20-$30 or 50lbs play sand/$3-$4, buy a piece of live rock for $3-$7/lbs and you will soon have live sand. The larger the rock, the faster the sand will seed.