Run out of Sand?

[Sciagura]

I've run out of algae before, so I had a plan for that, and I know coal is finite too, but I never expected to run out of sand.

Sand is the only filtration medium. Without it, my Air Deodorizers can't work, and neither can my Water Purifier (both very important).

My suggestion is to make a way to grind sandstone into sand in the future. It makes sense, and there is an enormous amount of sandstone.

[Storm0267]

but sand stone is finite too. outside of the brown area, it looks like there is no more sandstone

[Vexare]

It seems they haven't gotten to the long-term goals of the game yet and so I'm not sure if complete sustainable colonies are possible right now. I'm reading the other thread on sustainability and unless they add ways to recycle materials, probably not going to be able to keep going indefinitely. Sand seems like a definite game-ender once that's gone.

[revco696]

On the developer's forums, they've acknowledged that sustainability is currently impossible. They've also clearly stated that one of their goals is to create the necessary mechanisms to achieve sustainability. I don't think it's a mistake that sandstone is so plentiful...it's just not there yet. Pre-release alpha, it can't all be there or they'd just release it.

[Sciagura]

That's right, I think there's still a lot more to come to make a base more sustainable. I'm thinking various resource recycling buildings as well. Maybe even some new kinds of plants or life forms which recycle or produce odd materials. That would be cool.

[Arcane Eeden]

not sure exactly how old this is, but incase you guys haven't found the solution I wanted to leave the answer here for you: you can use heat and cooling to purify both water and oxygen rendering sand needed only for early game, however I do think they should add other filtration mediums that just makes sense. (organisms that eat contamination, coal, coal from wood, etc.)

[Zuluknob]

You can clean water and oxygen in other ways...

[Sciagura]

Thanks for the assist! That is helpful. I also heard that in the beta they are introducing an ice biome, which can also be melted to water.