Can't find southdown, what else to use?

bigsteve

bigsteve

Member
Hey all... I'm in the middle of trying to switch over to sand from CC, and I've gone to two different Home Depots and a Lowe's trying to find Southdown or Old Castle sand. Found plenty of other sand, but nothing on the bags to tell what it's base was.
I think most of the bags I looked at were made by Qwick-Kreete (sp?). But, they were all dark brown and would've been rather ugly. I found some nice white sand at *****, but they wanted $8/10lbs.
Does anyone know of any other sands out there to use? I want a whiter sand (preferably as white as possible), as everyone knows it looks the best.
I'm also thinking that maybe some specialty lawn and garden places would have it (because that's where everyone sends me when I'm looking for it).
Thanks for the help...
edit: BTW, I did a search before asking this question... I figured somone would've had this question before, but didn't find much other than "use Southdown".
 
cprdnick

cprdnick

Active Member
What about Yardright Tropical Play Sand. It's essentially the same aragonite based sand as Southdown. Just make sure whatever you buy it is not Silica sand. They have to state on the bag that it is Silica based, so watch for that.
 
bigsteve

bigsteve

Member
Now that I think about it, I have heard of yardright, I'll go out tomorrow after work to try to find some. Thanks cprdnick.
Anyone else know of any other sands?
cosguy20- I'm in Spotsylvania, Virginia. About halfway between our state capital, and our nation's capital. You may have heard of us during the DC sniper attack. We were the Exxon gas station. I drive by there every day, and stop in there quite frequently.... kind of like the movie series "Final Destination" in a way...
 
bigsteve

bigsteve

Member
cprdnick- Just checked out Yardright's website, and it says,
"Helpful Tip. Since YardRight™ Tropical Play Sand has been purified at high temperatures before packaging, be sure to add some moisture to return it to its natural state. Moist sand makes for better sandcastles. Not suitable for aquarium systems and traction purposes."
I'm guessing that's just in there for liability reasons. It says it contains no silicates, so it should be safe for the :happyfish: right?
 
dicemanj

dicemanj

Member
I looked on the quickrete bags of play sand and I could not find it daying that it is silica based, does that mean this sand is okay? I was under the impression that it was silca based.
 
tagg

tagg

Member
For what its worth, at least 5 cents....ya think?
I couldn't find any of the sands that everyone recomends
I went to the lumber store and got 200 lbs of sandblasting sand. That would be like 99% silica.
Nice white pure sand. No problems what-so-ever with it.
 
D

daniel411

Guest
Alot of the Home Depots in my area are just now starting to get southdown back in for the spring season.
 
cprdnick

cprdnick

Active Member

Originally posted by Tagg
For what its worth, at least 5 cents....ya think?
I couldn't find any of the sands that everyone recomends
I went to the lumber store and got 200 lbs of sandblasting sand. That would be like 99% silica.
Nice white pure sand. No problems what-so-ever with it.
YET!!!!! Dun-Dun-Dun

It'll take a while to do anything. How long have you been using it?
 
birdy

birdy

Active Member
I have also used silica sandblasting sand in a tank, it looked a bit more gray than my aragonite sand but not bad looking. I have read a lot about different types of sand, and in my reading they say that the silica is no more likely to break down and cause and algae problem than the silica your tank is made out of.
 
cprdnick

cprdnick

Active Member

Originally posted by Birdy
I have read a lot about different types of sand, and in my reading they say that the silica is no more likely to break down and cause and algae problem than the silica your tank is mad out of.

SHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
j/K
 
bigsteve

bigsteve

Member

Originally posted by Birdy
I have also used silica sandblasting sand in a tank, it looked a bit more gray than my aragonite sand but not bad looking. I have read a lot about different types of sand, and in my reading they say that the silica is no more likely to break down and cause and algae problem than the silica your tank is mad out of.
See.... I was thinking about that. There's silicates in the sealant used to hold the tank together. They don't leak out into the system (usually). Or, maybe they do, just in such small quantities it doesn't hurt anything. But, a whole sand bed full of silica sand more than triples the amount of silicates in the tank.... :confused:
Anyway... due to the fact that a few people here think argonite, and a few say silica is fine, and the fact that I can't find white argonite in the area (or a 20 mile radius), I picked up some white-ish play sand that "contains trace amounts of silicates". I rinsed the CRAP out of it, found out it's got river rocks in it (a bonus.... put them in Fishy-Fizzle's tank... my 6" fantail goldfish).
80lbs cost me $6.25, and I've only used 35 so far. I want to put the other in there, but I have a feeling it'll clutter up my tank too much. I've got about 45-50lbs of LR, and right now the sandbed's at about 2 1/2". I know a deep sandbed is supposet to be 4", but will it still help, being more shallow?
(BTW, not trying to make anyone feel like I don't value their opinions, but I'm just limited to what I've got access to. In other words, thanks cprdnick! and others:) )
 
tagg

tagg

Member
Not positive on how long I've been using the silica sand, but I would gess about 4-5 months now.
I had a nasty hair algae problem at the time I started switching to silica.... now there is none. (may or may not be related).
The water is crystal clear. Even the tank with Feather Caulerpa is doing great. Coralline is doing great as well. Nitrates went from a constant 50-80 down to 10-20. Corals, mushrooms, and anemone are all doing fine. Also have a new batch of baby Peppermint Shrimp. Pods everywhere. Also have two Sea Cucumber ( HOLOTHURIA FLORIDANA ) that have no problems digesting the silica.
So far - so good......:joy:
 
mryg15

mryg15

Member
In our area we cant get Old Castle or Southdown. At our local farm store we found Mississippi Lime calcium carbonate. Mississippi Lime makes all sorts of stone and sand products. We use this and it works great!
 
donmgicwon

donmgicwon

Member
Now for a more serious answer - other subs. will promote the development of denitrifiers but they won't release the continuous dosing of calcium and strontium that aragonite will.
 
birdy

birdy

Active Member
from what I understand, the pH in your tank would have to be very low, like 7.0 for the aragonite to break down and buffer the tank. So really the substrate doesn't do too much for buffering. I do use aragonite substrate in my tanks, it looks better, and Bang did an experiment to see what the worms did best in and it seemed to be aragonite sand. So I use it, there are no what if's involved and that is the way I like my tanks.
 
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