need more people wanting southdown?
- Thread starter ken s
- Start date
salty rick
Member
I hope that you have better luck than I. My understanding, based on my conversation with a local Home Depot manager, is that the SKU is for play sand and not specifically Southdown. They had that SKU at my local Home Depot but it was Bonsal Play Sand that they had in stock. Bonsal is a company out of Charlotte, NC. Basically each region gets what is closest and most economical. That is why some Home Depots have Quickcrete Play sand, others have Southdown and others have Bonsal. What you need is the Barcode number next to the barcode on the Southdown Bag. I tried to get a store-to-store transfer of Southdown from a store in Virginia but it didn't work. The local HD put in an order twice but it was never shipped. As a result I used the Bonsal Playsand. It has been about a month and the Nitrates have gone from 20 to below 10. Everything looks great and the water parameters have been stable. If you can get Southdown that is great!! If not, others have had success with other brands of playsand.
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10k
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I'm having the same problem SaltyRick! I too can get sku#578-819 from my local HD, but it is "Premium Playsand" from Bonsal. Sounds like the sku# system stands for SKUNK, cause it really STINKS!!! <img src="graemlins//confused.gif" border="0" alt="[confused]" />
salty rick
Member
The Bobsal sand is pretty white. I haven't seen southdown to compare but it is whiter than the sand that I see on the coasts of North Carolina but not as white as the Gulf Coast.
wrassecal
Active Member
OK , here's my new news from Home Depot. I found the sand at a store in the NE, Saugus Mass and they are willing to ship it to any Home Depot the hitch is we have to pay shipping cost and to ship from Mass to OK even using Home Depots discount with their trucking company it would cost me $100.00 to ship 150#, 3 bags that far. I also talked to a Home Depot in AZ and that guy was so nice called their buying dept found out they can't get it but he got me the phone number for South Down to call and see if they sell to any other vendors closer to Okla. The bottom line for people in my part of the country on this particular product is it's almost as costly as going with a saltwater product. So no $4.00 bags of silica free sugar fine sand to be gotten here. 
The "whiteness" of the sand is not the point. What you need is oolite sand. There are many silica based sands that are white, but do not meet the grade that most folks want for their tanks [unless they like to raise diatoms ].
Southdown or Yardright are the only cheapo brands that meet the grade for marine tanks that you can get at the home improvement store. Both are made by the same company, but under different "brandnames" and sold to different retailers.
].Southdown or Yardright are the only cheapo brands that meet the grade for marine tanks that you can get at the home improvement store. Both are made by the same company, but under different "brandnames" and sold to different retailers.
salty rick
Member
I haven't had a diatom problem so far. I think others have had success with silica based sand. I would imagine that this is one of those debates that could go for many pages of threads. All I know is that my DSB has worked so far. I have dropped my Nitrate level to under 10 PPM and it continues to go down. My corals haven't looked better than they do now.
wrassecal
Active Member
Yeah Beth that's what we are talking about the white silica free sand that can be gotten cheaply. White for the look and silica free for the lack of diatom blooms. That's the point of these threads. If you know the different brand names that Yard Rite and South Down sell under could you share those and also if they are both the same company what would that one company's name be? You seem to have information that might help us, but your post is vague and only conveys what we already know. Well, reading over this it sounds a little flaming and that's not my intention at all...but we sure could use some concrete (pun intended) info.
mini-reefer
Member
The number on the Southdown barcode is 0 90604 20100 2. Thats the number I got right off my LAST bag of the stuff . Ive set up 3 tanks, 2 refugiums and have about 25 lbs left of 300 that I started with. I wish I would have bought more when I had the chance. Anyway, I hope this number will help out some of you.
Mini-Reefer
. Ive set up 3 tanks, 2 refugiums and have about 25 lbs left of 300 that I started with. I wish I would have bought more when I had the chance. Anyway, I hope this number will help out some of you. Mini-Reefer