Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

I was wondering...what is the difference between the sand (not LS) from the LFS and the sand you buy in 50lb bags at Home Depot(Southdown/Oldcastle)? Is that stuff safe for tanks?

The southdown/castle/ sand is safe...but it is like a powder.....very good for deep sand beds....but will make the water cloudy for a while due to the fine particles......took my tank about a month to really get settled in...also do not suggest anything like an eng goby with fine sand....it will be stired up 24/7 Other sand need to ck what else is in it....like silica base, ect.....

so what do I do to make it less powdery? Do they still carry it at local stores? I called up home depot and the guy didnt have a clue what I was talking about ... like most of the morons they got working there.
im gunna be setting up a few small tanks so I wanna try to save everyway i can.

I think they were selling it in Fla (Pensacola). It will settle out as it matures...the particles will bind together as the bacteria builds up.. It just takes time.....I thought I was screwed for couple of wks but now I really like it....

Well the tank I might soon be getting will be a 35g and Im going to set it up for a LONG cycle. Ive heard of people letting a tank go for 2 or 3 months before adding critters. Right now I kinda wanna make it a FOWLR and stick a baby trigger in it. It will all depend on what I wanna do with it 2 months from now. I am just trying to save as much as I can with this.

I have never tried it, but what is wrong with getting sand at the beach?

The original way of thinking as far as getting sand off the beach around here, was that it was bad, because it is silicate sand, not calcium carbonate like Southdown. Supposedly the silicate sand would leech silicate into the water column leading to algae outbreaks. I read recently that this is no longer considered true. Someone (No clue who) did testing and found that this sand does not leech any significant amounts of silicate in the water and is just fine to use. Maybe do a search on reefcentral for more info, I believe that is where I picked up the info from initially.

I have read in Dr. Rons forum on RC that the leaching of silicate is a rumor also. I think the problem was particle size and texture with most silicate sand. Plus I would be worried about contamination from sand on beaches so close to large cities and tourists.

Joe

danielmiller82 wrote:so what do I do to make it less powdery?

I'm probably the only one who does this, but I rinse the hell out of the South Down. I loose about 10% of the sand, but when I'm done there is very little "cloudiness". When I say I rinse the "hell" out of it, I really mean I rinse the hell out of it!

Our beach sand is not as white as southdown also...

just so you know, the last I read the southdown brand went out of business so if you find some buy a bunch of it

yeah southdown was changed to Old Castle and now its called Yardright. hmm I guess i is the same stuff. Says its from the Caribbean and its silicate free

old castle bags yardright only in the northeastern area of the US (Old Castle is based in PA).

You can't get the "right" kind of sand anywhere locally, you have to have it freighted in on a pallette (2800 lbs. worth!), I've done this before, there's a thread about it.

The local Yardright is bagged in AR, says so on the bag.

The "test" to find out if it's silicate sand or aragonite sand, is to pour vinegar on it... if it fizzes, you got aragonite, otherwise if it doesn't fizz, you have silicate.

Here's the thread for the previous group buy of sorts... I ordered a pallette to fill my 240G, and sold the rest.

http://www.mbrk.com/viewtopic.php?t=570

Your only other option for cheap aragonite sand is to pick it up by the pickup-truck load over in Jacksonville, FL. There's a thread about this on Reefcentral.

Good luck!

i wouldnt get sand from the beach because there might be lots of contaminates in it like oils and othe bacteria that might lead to major out break of bad things my guess would be maby to go out 10 20 miles off hte shore and get it from the bottom --- maby but you might end up spending more money than gitting it from a local fish store!!

just my 2 cents

chad

Yeah just look at those oil rigs off shore before you dig, might change your mind.