southdown sand

splash1914

splash1914

Member
I have just recently heard about southdown sand.... It seems this is a super cheap way to add substrate.... I am curently setting up a in wall 300 gallon and a 150 gallon for my work. Can I soley use southdown? Where can I get it in Orlando? Does it take forever to clear??? Thanks for any help.....
 
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alti

Guest
southdown is a great way to save alot of money. ive used it on 3 of my 4 tanks and have no complaints. you will only have a clouding problem if you dont add it correctly. add the sand before the water. then place a bowl or bucket into the tank and GENTLY pour the water into the bowl. even after the water rises above the bowl keep pouring it over it. i did it this way and the tank cleared in less than 1 hour. you should be able to find southdown in your local home depot or landscaper supply store. you will probably want to add about 80% southdown and another 20% live sand. you may be able to reduce the ammount of live sand if you add enough live rock. are these tanks going to be fish only or reef tanks?
 
yetex

yetex

Member
The question about rinsing the sand is a mixed debate some will tell you to rinse it and others will say the dust is what makes it better.
 
fshhub

fshhub

Active Member
IMO, don't rinse
and it will cloud, but will also settle, b the time your cycle is over, you will be glad you used it
and you would use only southdown, the sand will become live with the addition of LR
I added teh sand and rock and then cycled using the rock, the rock will seed the sand, or ir you like, you could mix with LS as well. That one is your choice.
The clouding was bad at first, but never gives us any problems now and atnk has remained so for at least 6 months.
 
robn70

robn70

Member
Just a note, Southdown is very hard to find unless you live in the North East. You may want to look for Yardrite. it is made by the same company and is suposed to be the same as southdown.
 
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alti

Guest
i got the yardrite too. its the same thing just a different bag.
 
novice150

novice150

Member
Splash: Do you plan to keep your sharks in this tank? As previously stated, the big issue with SD is the dust. (carib sea is not much better IMO) so if you do plan to add the sharks to this tank, and you do not rinse the sand first, they will cloud the tank every time they stir the sand. (which in my experience is every day) I would recommend rinsing the sand first.
Even if you rinse the sand, the sharks will still make a big mess until the bacteria populates the sand, but not as bad if not rinsed.
 
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alti

Guest
normally i would disagree with rinsing the sand, but if you are going to have the sharks in there i think novice150 is right.
 
robn70

robn70

Member
Mikester311
Yardrite and Southdown (the harder one to find) are usually sold in Home Depot. Not sure what an equivelent brand would be. You are basically looking for a tropical Play sand which is taken from the ocean.
 
splash1914

splash1914

Member
I went today to home depot and saw that the bag of sand saysit has been sanitized... for some reason that word scares me!!! sanitizes = chemicals right??
 
mikester311

mikester311

Member
RobN70,
Since I am in Florida, Southdown has been impossible to find. And I never could find any playsand from HD or Lowes other than Quickcrete and a few other silica based sands with I didn't really want to take my chances with. I finally ended up ordering from purearagonite.com, but if there is an equivalent sand somewhere local for alot less I would go that route for my other tank I am going to set up.
 
robn70

robn70

Member
from what i've herd its similar to glass. not sure why it can't be used. I've seen some post where people were using it. :confused:
 
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