Aragonite Sand CHEAP! Who's interested?

[adamjr]

Hello,

My name is Adam Reizner and I am new to CMAS. I have not really met anybody and the forum is new so I don't know peoples opinions yet.

On several other boards there is a lt of talk about SouthDown sand, PlayRight, and YardRight Caribbean play sand being used in aquariums as an inexpensive alternative to Carib Sea (to name just one) aragonite sugar size substrate.

The only problem with this is that there is severely limited supply of these brands in the Chicago area.

I have begun investigating bringing this sand to the midwest by purchasing a pallet load (70 bags at 40# each) and having it trucked in from the processing plant in Pennsylvania to my wifes office where I would make several trips home with the sand.

I am expecting shipping quotes tomorrow afternoon from a few carriers so I can calculate the cost per bag. I am expecting to get the cost per bag to be around $12.00.

At $12.00 per 40# bag I would like to know who would be interested in buying some at the swap meet and how many bags?If there is sufficient interest I will make the arrangements if the cost works out.

I am talking about a substantial cash outlay for me so please let me know. Consider this; I just upgraded my 75 gallon to a 150 gallon and I paid $25.00 per 30 pound bag of Carib Sea. That is $0.83 per pound. At $12.00 per 40# bag that is just $0.30 per pound. Put into the simplest terms the money I spent on 90 pounds of Carib Sea would have gotten me 250 # of YardRight.

Finally if someone knows of a local (anywhere in the northern part of Illinois) to get thsi stuff off the shelf so it would be unnecessary for me to truck it in I would be happy with that info too.

Adam

[alpine]

Hi

I have been searching for a place to get yardright sand from in the chicago area but have had no luck.If I find a place I will definately let you know.If you find a local place please be sure to share the info with us fellow cmas members.


Jorge

[makoshark]

Adam,

How much sand do you need? I have three 50# bags of Genuine Southdown Sand that I was thinking of bringing to the swap meet. I'd be happy to get the $15.00 a bag that I shelled out for them.

Jeff

[mkirda]

Originally posted by adamjr
On several other boards there is a lt of talk about SouthDown sand, PlayRight, and YardRight Caribbean play sand being used in aquariums as an inexpensive alternative to Carib Sea (to name just one) aragonite sugar size substrate.
Finally if someone knows of a local (anywhere in the northern part of Illinois) to get thsi stuff off the shelf so it would be unnecessary for me to truck it in I would be happy with that info too.

Adam

Adam,

First of all, it is not that great of a product. You will not beleive the amount of silt that it produces and the amount of time it takes for it to come out of solution.

If you really, really want it, take a drive over to Kalamazoo, MI. The Home depot there carries it for $7/bag. There is a good reef shop right nearby, who also sells it inexpensively, maybe $6/bag.

After using it for my new setup, I would hesitate to recommend its use to anyone. I lost more corals than I care to talk about due to a number of things that went wrong, but the southdown played a very important role. Silt is not a good thing.

If you do go down that road, WASH IT like there is no tomorrow before using it. And I mean like two hours per bag!

Regards.
Mike Kirda

[makoshark]

Mike,

Having just setup my 55 gal. tank with a Southdown DSB and wondering if the benefits outweigh the hassle.

I haven't lost anything yet since I'm waiting a few more weeks to start adding livestock.

I would like to know what you would recommend instead?

[jcm1229]

I've used Southdown with no ill effects.

[randyS]

I'll take ten bags and rinse with fresh water before use
Randy@amicomm.net

[hcs3]

hey guys

FWIW, there are several methods for adding sand to an aquarium that virtually eleminates any residual dust. i dumped 100lbs of SD sand into my aquarium and it was cleared in less than 2 hours. my personal favorite method is by using a 2" piece of PVC about 4 feet long (or shorter for you short people). place the end in the tank about 1" under the existing sandbed and then dump the needed sand into the pipe slowly. before you remove the pipe fromt he aquarium, be sure to cap the end that is in the water. if done properly, you will have practically no dust in the aquarium.

a second method that works equally as well is if you have small amounts of sand to add. freeze the sand with small amounts of RO water in an ice cube tray. once frozen, drop the cubes into the tank slowly. the sand cube will sink, and there will be no dust anywhere.

the "dust" that some members are refering to is actually greatly desired for a true DSB (and possibly a vitile cog), and should definately not be washed away.

adding any type of sand to an exisitng aquarium is risky business. with a few precautions, it can be an easy and risk-free adventure.

HTH

henry

[witche42]

uh, if you wash southdown you won't have anything left. you gotta put it in your tank first then add the water with a hose, not by bucket. and try to let the water run off the glass instead of splash in the sand. washing it is a very bad idea in my opinion. if you are worried about disturbing the sand once its in your tank just put some crushed coral over top or the sand to keep it from getting disturbed. just my 2 cents.

steven

[Nitelife]

Hi Adam, i seen your post take a look at this may save ya money and get a free bag to boot. They are a sponser here too,look there if this thred wont work www.pureagagonite.com i e-maild for a quote for 8 bags got a reply the next day.Pay for 7 bags@40Lbs. a bag and get 1 free 11.95 a bag(you pick the grain size)+shipping was a little over 150. I live in the upper north of Michigan and my local HD do not and will not carry SD sand.So looks like i go here. good luck bud .

[Nitelife]

Sorry www.purearagonite.com

[mkirda]

Originally posted by witche42
uh, if you wash southdown you won't have anything left. you gotta put it in your tank first then add the water with a hose, not by bucket. and try to let the water run off the glass instead of splash in the sand. washing it is a very bad idea in my opinion. if you are worried about disturbing the sand once its in your tank just put some crushed coral over top or the sand to keep it from getting disturbed. just my 2 cents.

steven

Let me say from personal experience that this does not work.

I have a LOT of flow in my tank. It took more than two weeks to clear, and that was mostly due to a novel method I have yet to write up.

Again, I would not recommend SD sand to anyone. The benefits (a few bucks savings) do NOT outweigh its problems (i.e. Silt like you have never seen silt before- Like a colloidal suspension.)

Regards.
Mike Kirda

[mkirda]

Originally posted by hcs3
the "dust" that some members are refering to is actually greatly desired for a true DSB (and possibly a vitile cog), and should definately not be washed away.

henry

Henry,

Silt is a stressor to corals. Siltation is one of the main coral killers in the US and around the world.

In one sense, you are correct- Small diameter sand particles are important to the sandbed. Agree 100%. But when they become water-borne, the advantages become null.

You can stock a sandbed with well-washed oolitic sand and get great results. Over a short amount of time, there will be a lot of silt-sized particles in the sandbed due to aragonite dissolution. This is perfect as they are already bound into the bacterial biofilm that coats the sand, and never become waterborne.

However, this is not what happens in a high-flow tank with SD sand, even when you cover the SD with a layer of live sand, crushed coral, or whatever.
You get the SD silt to go into suspension, and the tank turns to milk.

Weeks later, it will still be milk. Most of your corals will be dead.

If you have the time to set a tank up from scratch, and do not have to put animals into it (in my case, I moved and had 10-12 days before I had to move the animals...) over the short term (I'd say 1 month minimum), then you might be ok. "might" being the important word here.

Again, I do have a high-flow tank, meant for SPS. In a low-flow, lagoonal environment, you might be luckier than I.

Regards.
Mike Kirda

[Black Phantom]

I'm interested in the link that was provided earlier to
purearagonite.com. Has anyone out there purchased from this company and if so, did you like what you got........:strooper:

[hcs3]

mike,

thanks for your response. i understand your concern. however, i must reitterate that if you are getting your tank to look like milk, you are adding the sand wrong - most likely just dumping it in. if you use this method with any of the sand available for our aquariums, you are going to have the same problems.

i recently moved in july. i sold my 75g tank, but kept the livestock (lps, brains, clams). these corals were placed into my new 180g tank 24 hours after setting up the aquarium as this aquarium was crystal clear. the aquarium was stocked with roughly 400lbs of new southdown. my tank was settled and clear by the next morning. i used only the method i decribed in my first paragraph above. now i dont have SPS, so i probably do not have as high flow as you do. at the time of setting up the tank the only pump on the tank was an iwaki100rlt. i had to throttle it back to match the overflows, so i suspect a flow of just under 2000g per hour. i also placed a magnum HOB canister filter with filter floss packed into it to assist in the removal of the floating silt.

i had to add 100lbs of southdown about 1 month ago to this same tank. using the same method decribed above, i had no mortalities. this included various LPS, 7 clams, various monti, various acro, and a couple soft corals. again, there was no detectable "cloud" of silt whatsoever.

i will certainly agree that one should never "dump" southdown into an existing tank. it simply is not a wise idea. however, in a controlled addition, i believe adding southdown is simple, painless, and definitely not harmful.

HTH

henry

[Nitelife]

Black Phantom,got my order from pureargonite yesterday,Looks good very fine and whiter then i expected....when i called to place my order the gent who discribed it to me made me wonder if it like a play sand in color.But it is actully very white.Also he was very helpful in other matters to do with sand beds and the critters to add......With out a dought i'd order from them.To bad i couldn't use this as a PLUG for them a get $$$$ of my order LOL..

[mkirda]

Originally posted by hcs3
mike,

thanks for your response. i understand your concern. however, i must reitterate that if you are getting your tank to look like milk, you are adding the sand wrong - most likely just dumping it in.

henry

Henry,

I added the SD sand, then enough water to wet it. I then covered it to a depth of about 1 inch with live sand taken from one of Harbor Aquatic's tanks. The rest of the water was added by siphon, with the output directed on top of a dinner plate, so as to not disturb the bed.

Essentially equivalent to your method.

As soon as the pump (one measly 400gph powerhead!) was turned on, the silt that was released mixed. After an hour or two, there was some sandbed movement and that was all she wrote- 120 gallons of Vitamin D milk. The next day, the sump pumps were turned on and I had 350 gallons of Vitamin D Milk.

A week later, it was still the same.

Other brands of sand bound for the aquarium industry have some silt, but not to this degree. At least not in the 12+ years I've been dealing with crushed coral or aragonite sands.

Siltdown sand. Avoid it.
My opinion and I'm sticking to it.

Regards.
Mike Kirda