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Southdown local?

steveoutlaw

By steveoutlaw,
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BeltwayBandit

BeltwayBandit

Does anyone know a place locally (Woodbridge) that carries Southdown this time of year???

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If you can wait a month or so the garden stores will be stocking up for spring. I know the HD in Springfield used to carry it, but I haven't looked in a while.

discordja

discordja

I brought this up in another thread. Southdown no longer sells their sand as Tropical Play Sand (at least when I went by the Southern States in Manassas). They said it was due to legal reasons. So their play sand is now just 'White Play Sand' and it's silica sand by the looks of it. If you want to use that, it's 4 bucks a 40# bag. Lacking that, you'll have to go the caribsea or comparable lfs brands which are normally a buck a pound or so.

 

and oh yeah, I have 120 pounds of the stuff I was going ot use and decided to scrap that plan and go barebottom. I'm gonna be down in woodbridge later this week or the weekend if you just want me to drop it off, Steve.

 

Does anyone know a place locally (Woodbridge) that carries Southdown this time of year???

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extreme_tooth_decay

extreme_tooth_decay

I brought this up in another thread.  Southdown no longer sells their sand as Tropical Play Sand (at least when I went by the Southern States in Manassas).  They said it was due to legal reasons.  So their play sand is now just 'White Play Sand' and it's silica sand by the looks of it.  If you want to use that, it's 4 bucks a 40# bag.  Lacking that, you'll have to go the caribsea or comparable lfs brands which are normally a buck a pound or so.

 

and oh yeah, I have 120 pounds of the stuff I was going ot use and decided to scrap that plan and go barebottom.  I'm gonna be down in woodbridge later this week or the weekend if you just want me to drop it off, Steve.

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The White play sand also isn't aragonite based (fails vinegar test).

 

 

Dr. Mac still had some of the real stuff (Tropical Play Sand) last time I was there.

He was selling it for about $5/40# bag.

 

tim

lmeyer

lmeyer

I brought this up in another thread.  Southdown no longer sells their sand as Tropical Play Sand (at least when I went by the Southern States in Manassas).  They said it was due to legal reasons.  So their play sand is now just 'White Play Sand' and it's silica sand by the looks of it.  If you want to use that, it's 4 bucks a 40# bag.  Lacking that, you'll have to go the caribsea or comparable lfs brands which are normally a buck a pound or so.

 

and oh yeah, I have 120 pounds of the stuff I was going ot use and decided to scrap that plan and go barebottom.  I'm gonna be down in woodbridge later this week or the weekend if you just want me to drop it off, Steve.

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Is the sand you have the old Tropical or the new White Play? If you have 120 lbs of the Tropical and Steve doesn't take it, I'll be happy to take it off your hands. I need 160 more lbs for the tank I'm planning.

 

Larry

discordja

discordja

The sand I have is silica sand, not the Tropical. Sorry, should have made that clear.

 

Is the sand you have the old Tropical or the new White Play?  If you have 120 lbs of the Tropical and Steve doesn't take it, I'll be happy to take it off your hands.  I need 160 more lbs for the tank I'm planning. 

 

Larry

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johnnybv

johnnybv

The sand I have is silica sand, not the Tropical.  Sorry, should have made that clear.

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Guys, I have searched and searched for the troplical play sand, and have been told they are no longer mining the stuff, so if you find some most likely you will not see it again.

I do carry the carib sea line cheaper than a dollar a pound.

 

John

steveoutlaw

steveoutlaw

  • Author

Johnny-

I'm coming out your way on Saturday......how much do you have? I'm looking for 2-3" deep coverage on a 65g.

 

Question......what harm will silica sand do to a tank??

 

Thanks.

discordja

discordja

You'll get some diatom blooms initially but after that it should be about the same as using CaribSea. Remember, even silica sand has only trace amounts of it. What you really lose is the Alk buffering and calcium leaching. You can overcome that with kalk or some other mechanism. I think silica sand just brings out the boogyman in general.

 

Think diatoms....lots and lots of diatoms..

 

Here's Randy Holmes-Farley's take: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/jan2003/feature.htm

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BeltwayBandit

BeltwayBandit

I think silica sand just brings out the boogyman in general.

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Actually it is a two for the price of one boogyman. You get the DSB boogyman telling you it is the wrong sand, then you also invoke the BB boogyman telling you that regardless of the sand type your system will crash into oblivion. Not to mention a few lesserknown boogys as well.

ErikS

ErikS

invoke the BB boogyman telling you that regardless of the sand type your system will crash into oblivion.

Hey...........I resemble that remark :lol:

 

Let's not forget the "sharp edges hurting inverts" bogeyman :D

Lee Stearns

Lee Stearns

My view on the main benefit was that the tropical carib sand was calcium based and allows a certain amount of buffer to stabilize the tank's alk- calcium raito. where as the silicate based besides for allowing more diatom growth was just a habitat for normal sand bed critters. It just makes sense to me to use the same base as nature uses, whetehr I know the exact chemical interactions taking place or not.

Lee Stearns

Lee Stearns

First of all not terribly legal I guess- second, most of that is sediment like mud from river wash- The tropical sand is really more crushed up coral that was built over generations - If you have ever dove or snorkeled one of the tropical islands you will note that there are parrot fish cruising the reefs- They eat the SPS corals, and their stomach digests the flesh and they poop out sand. Multiply this by years and years of coral growth and parrot fish predation, and wala... sand beaches that are fairly white and calcium based :D

This may be why some of the Carrib tropical beaches are closing to the quick and easy buck of shipping an abundant resource literally from their shores- replacement is, while renewable, somewhat a matter of time measured in more than generations. That being said, there have to be some great little Atolls in the pacific that could supply the entire aquarium industry for decades.

ErikS

ErikS

This may be why some of the tropical beaches are closing to the quick and easy buck of shipping an abundant resource literally from their shores- replacement is while renewable is somewhat a matter of time measures in more than generations.

 

Exactly! I'd imagine that the amount required for pet keeping is minimal - the arrogance of mankind on the other hand. Check Miami - that beach came from where? I was there in the 70's = ZERO beach @ high tide. Arrogant man decides "we need to replace this", same goes for countless other beaches on the east coast (Ocean City).

 

Sorry :lol: end rant - I'm more familiar with areas where a beach errodes & that's the way it goes - no thought of replacing it.

BeltwayBandit

BeltwayBandit

Sorry :lol: end rant - I'm more familiar with areas where a beach errodes & that's the way it goes - no thought of replacing it.

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But don't you know beaches are renewable. No matter how many times mother nature washes them away we can just go dig up some other ecologically sensitive area to rebuild our tourist attraction...err. beach.

johnnybv

johnnybv

Johnny-

I'm coming out your way on Saturday......how much do you have?  I'm looking for 2-3" deep coverage on a 65g.

 

Question......what harm will silica sand do to a tank??

 

Thanks.

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I have 8 bags coming in thursday 4 of which are sold. Depending on the type they are in 40# and 30# bags, should be plenty for your 65.

 

john

johnnybv

johnnybv

What I have coming is 6 bags of the 40# which is the reef floor sand and 1 bag of each of the finer sand which are the 30# bags. Check it out at www.caribsea.com.

John

 

Johnny,

Please reserve 2 30# bags for me.  I'll pick them up Saturday.

 

Thanks,

Steve

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johnnybv

johnnybv

Steve,

Take a bag of each and mix together.

Well graded substrate is better for the inhabs and nicer to look at anyway.

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Chip is correct, a mix of 2 different size is great.

Off the top of my head the 40# bag is like $32, and the 30# a little less.

John

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