Here is some information from Mark Peterson's Secrets of an affordable reef aquarium the full thing can be found here:
http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244
Utah has two resources that are
perfect for setting up marine/reef aquariums. Oolitic sand and Lake
Bonneville Tufa Rock (LBTR). See the pics below. But these
free resources do not come ready to use. They require first the finding,
then the collecting and then cleaning prior to use.
1. Oolitic Sand
If dry, screen with a window screen or something similar to remove sticks, rocks, bullets
,
etc. Then rinse in tapwater about four times until the rinsewater turns
from tan to a clear gray. Rinsing smaller amounts at a time is usually
easier because of it's packing density.


2. Utah Aragonite Rock/ Lake Bonneville Tufa Rock (LBTR)
Blast it on all sides at the
carwash with the high pressure spray in the Rinse setting. Squeeze the
handle. Try to blast off at least 95% of the lichen and moss from all
surfaces. Placing the tip of the wand about 3" from the rock surface
will get the toughest stuff. Blast all holes. There is dirt in some nice
holes that cannot be opened up unless blasted by the high pressure
spray. When it's done the clean LBTR is pretty much sterile with very
little organic material to cause pollution. Large quantities of clean
LBTR cause no problem in any tank, new or old.

Above is how LBTR
looks after picking it up off the ground. Below are a couple pics of
LBTR in a tank that has been set up for 16 months. But for two
exceptions, all the LR seen in these pics is 16 month LBTR. Can you find
the exceptions?


The backlight in these pics is the bright morning sun. This tank is directly in the sun of an East facing window.