Southdown Sand

[landmeier]

I just got 2 40 lb. bags of southdown. My question is how do I rinse it before putting in the tank? Do I add water to a bucket containing the sand and then pour off the rinse water? Do I need to rinse it?

 

[salttrigger]

Where did you buy the sand?.I been looking for it without luck.

 

[landmeier]

I got the sand on an auction site on the web. I don't think I can say the name but if you think about it you probably know which one I am talking about. It was only $5.99 for each 40 lb. bag. Shipping was $15 for each though. Anyone else have suggestions for my new sand?

 

[andymi]

Just rinse it in water, some people have also recently been talking about getting nasty red algae blooms with this sand. For all you advocates of SD sand , dont shoot the messenger. I personally have had better success with the CaribSea brand of sands. And if someone counters with the rumor that CaribSea and SD use the same sand, I think they should do more research
Anyhow, just rinse the sand to get it heavy wait for the other particles to settle, then poor of the standing water.
--Andy

 

[marine qa]

I used 100lbs SD sand for my DSB 4+ months ago. I did not rinse it first. It is so fine I dont know how you could. Also, it never produced anything more than an expected diatom bloom that lasted about two months.

 

[jimi]

I slowly added mine. I did not rinse the first half then single rinsed the second have. Cleared within hours but then I only added a few lbs a day. I half filled a 5 gal bucket with r/o water then poured the SD in and swished it aroud then dumped the water. Still plenty of fine stuff left but the single rinse gets rid of some debris.

 

[@knight]

never had a problem with mine. im happy with the product. plus, its so much cheaper.
it did take about 2 wwwks for the water to clear when i set up the tank, and i did have one heck of a diatom bloom, but after that everything has gone fine.