All you EVER wanted to know about Southdown

[griss]

Originally posted by Drowning_Fish
Ok, here is a new one. I live in NYC and wanted to get 200#'s of this stuff, soI called the HD's in the surrounding area. They gave me the SKU#, UPC# and MODEL#'s that are listed on this thread. I too asked them to visualy confirm whether it was SD or not. They told me it was. So I flew to the HD.

When I get there, I inspect the bags, and what to my wondering eyes do I see? I bag that has LIME CREST written on it!!!! However the bag looks identical to the SD bag except that is says Lime Crest on it. Whats the deal?? Anyone know??

Interesting. Here is something you can do to see if this is aragonite sand. Buy a bag, take some sand and place it in a bowl or cup. Then pour vinegar into the bowl or cup. If the sand bubbles and slowly dissolves, it is aragonite. If this is the case, please take a pic of the new bags and post here.

Griss

[appstateguy]

i got my bag from winston salem, nc.

[griss]

appstateguy,

[welcome]

Griss

[dwall174]

I finaly got 200lbs of SD after visiting my father in OH. over the Holidays. I was not able to find any here in southeast MI! I had read here that someone found some in Mansfield OH. and that was only about 45 minutes from him. I did not notice until I had go back to MI. that "INSIDE" two of the bags there is some light green mold? the mold is on the plastic not the sand & the bags are not broke or wet? Has this happened to anyone else? And do you think it is safe to use?

[Chris Rollison]

I've now got several bags of Southdown that I intend to use in my 125. Today I used 2 bags to start up my 30 gal DSB refugium. I've read several posts that say not to pre-wash Southdown but this stuff is powder fine!!! The clouding in the refugium has persisted for hours, how long will this take to clear? Any tricks to accelerating it? I'm nervous about the main tank as tomorrow I'll add the live rock but adding the sand after the rock as most recommend makes me nervous. Won't the fine particules settle onto the live rock? What affect does this have on the rock organisms? With all the talk about Southdown, there must be hundreds who've gone down this path before me.....what steps do I need to take to successfully install Southdown in my main tank??? Thanks for your help....

Chris

[striker3636]

Has anyone located this stuff in Northern New York, preferably around Buffalo?

[bori]

Chris Rollison

Won't the fine particules settle onto the live rock? What affect does this have on the rock organisms? With all the talk about Southdown, there must be hundreds who've gone down this path before me.....

Hi Chris, Do a search on "sand storms" for more info. My "sand storm" took about 3 weeks to clear as I was using the "shrimp bag" method to cycle the tank. With Live rock it should clear much faster as the bacteria coats the sand grains, they will settle. HTH --Rob--

[Avonlea,PA]

I was able to find the Sothdown sand at my local Home Depot (Mechanicsburg, PA) just a mile away from where I live. I bought 6 bags @ $4.99/bag.
You can't imagine how excited I was to actually find it. It was outside and covered with a few inches of snow...but I found it.

Hopefully it will be enough to create a good DSB on my 120RR (48x24x24) with some extra to spare for future use.

[dwall174]

Originally posted by dwall174
I finaly got 200lbs of SD "INSIDE" two of the bags there is some light green mold? the mold is on the plastic not the sand & the bags are not broke or wet?

I am planing to replace my CC with the SD I just want to make sure that it's ok to use. Have you heard of this befor? Do you think that it is safe to use?

[griss]

Originally posted by dwall174
I am planing to replace my CC with the SD I just want to make sure that it's ok to use. Have you heard of this befor? Do you think that it is safe to use?

Dwall,

Personally, I would hesitate to use it. You never know where the sand was stored before you received it and with mold that mean moisture got inside the bag at some point. Who knows, if this stuff was in the garden area of HD and water got inside, what else did....fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, etc.

Griss

[Grumpy Vet]

While I hate to have you waste any money....

I would be wary as well......unless you had some way to sterilize and/or disinfect the sand - I'd consider finding some other bags.....

[dwall174]

Thanks for your replies, that was my first thought also to just get some more! I had hoped that that had happened to someone else and they didn't have any problems with it. Just a reminder for others CHECK BAGS CLOSLY! Well it looks like I have some fancy sand for "traction" here in MI.

[Mako]

I would not worry about a little mold on the inside of the bag. If it was sealed and not leaking then the source of the moisture was probably condensation from the sand. Mold spores are everywhere, just takes a little moisture to get em going. Some spores probably made their way into the bag when it was packaged.

We pick up the sand in bulk down here in Fl from AES and I have seen mold form on the sand from the humidity down here when it's covered with a tarp in the back yard. Never been a problem when used later on in a system.

fwiw

[striker3636]

You can add Hamburg, NY to the list...(Just outside of Buffalo)... Just picked up 10 bags today, they have two full skids and one half skid left.

[DrMilhouse]

I agree that the mold is nothing to worry about. Mold is just another organic thing for the tank to break down. If you have an established tank already it may start a cycle, but if this is just starting the tank it's nothing to worry about at all.

[GulliverBarb]

Is there any Southdown in Michigan??? What is the alternative if we can't get it??? HELP! I don't want to quit before I get started. I've already ordered my tank.

[dwall174]

Wish I could help you! I will be going down to Ohio soon to visit my farther and will bring some back. Use the search forums tab at the top of this page and do a search for: Southdown Michigan I'm not sure if theres anyone near you up there? but I did see a post from someone in Greenbay WI. that said that they had some there. Hope this helps?

[bubbletip]

Back in May when I went on my southdown hunt, I got on the phone to different HD's and found some in the Saugas, Mass. store. My HD had 200lbs sent down here to Oklahoma for me. It was treated as a special order and ended up costing me about 40cents a lb. - Still a savings though not the famous 50lbs for 5 bucks! The other thing of interest I found out is the Southdown sales rep I talked to in Penn. told me that they were working on a national contract with Ace Hardware and they were hoping to have it available nationwide towards the end of 2002. He also told me I could direct order 7,000 lbs or more. I haven't checked with Ace or back with Southdown, but it might be worth a phone call if you have a local Ace Hardware.

[RGC]

I checked the local HD ( Amsterdam NY ) today and they have about 1/2 a pallet of SouthDown sand . The red and blue bags .


RGC

[minh_han]

Let me see if I have this all down. So basically, Southdown is the name of a company that exports sand from the Carribean. This "Southdown" has been shown (by whom and how?) to have excellent qualities for the denitrification process. And it's about $3.50 a bag (how many pounds is that and how much would I need for my presently nonexistent 90 G aquarium?). I live in Manchester, CT, so there is a chance I might be able to get some.

What are the alternatives to Southdown? What is CC? The questions seem to go on and on in this hobby, huh?

Minh

[minh_han]

Ok, so with reading a bit more, I now know that CC is crushed coral. (Newbie here y'all) If I am starting a tank, what order do I put everything in? SD, then water, then salt bag, and then LR? Or some other order? By the way, I'm still researching, but is there any way to "make" your own salt solution? Or is buying the pre-packaged salt the best idea?

[dwall174]

Welcome to Reef Central: Check out the post "abbreviations, acronyms, and other shorthand, and click on the, "addreviations list" link. That should answer some of your questions about the shorthand used here. Also check the top of Reef Central's Home page and you will find a "Calculator" tab with this you can figure out how much sand you will need, and other usefull information. Use the "search" tab and check for DSB (Deep Sand Bed) & SD (SouthDown) sand.

[dwall174]

The order that I used was: I took the sand stright from the bag (not washed) and layed a thin layer (1/2") just to coat the bottom of the tank, then I added 4 large flat pieces of base rock on top of the sand to act as footings. Then added the rest of the sand around the base rock. I then carefully added pemixed SW (Salt Water) slowly over the top of the base rock untill tank was about 3/4 full I added a small power head just for water circulation and let it run like that for a day. On the second day I added 5 lbs. of LS (Live Sand) from my LFS (Local Fish Store) then I let it run like that for two more days. On the fifth day I added my LR (Live Rock) and topped off the water. By doing it this way I minimized the "Sandstorm" that everyone has talked about. I hope this helps. Just remember that the only dumb question is the one that you didn't ask

[ijneb]

I have a quick question, from what i read (which wasnt 5 pages of posts) SD isnt available south of NC or something like that. I live in FL, so what should i use instead?
Thanks
Ben

[artie]

hi anyone here frm new york im in queens is there a home depot here selling southdown let me know