The Holy Grail...

[foulbrew]

Just got back from a day trip to the Mad City (Madison, WI) where I was able to obtain 10 bags of pure, hightest, Southdown Sand. 4 hours there, 4 hours back. I felt like a smuggler... I got it from a guy, who knew a guy who could get Home Depot to ship it there. He got a whole pallet. I got the last ten bags.
Ah... the new tank is staring to come together.

 

[plum70rt]

Just curious , how much a bag?
I always hear of people going crazy to get that sand,
I buy live sand for 20 bucks for 20 lbs,
was it worth all that trouble?

 

[foulbrew]

I paid $10 per bag, they are 50lb bags. It should be enough for my new 92 gal corner and 40 gal refugium. I really don't know if it's worth it, I guess I'll find out. I used store bought live sand in my first tank, it worked great but cost a ton. In my second I used pure silica sand blasting sand, which was very inexpensive and also worked fine. No detectable leaching of silicates and no diatom or other issues and great diversity of fauna. However, I wanted the whiter look in this new tank, like I had in the first. I will be interesting comparing the sand beds in a year or two.