Where on earth can I get tropical playsand?

[Discdogge]

I live in Jacksonville florida, where can I get some southdown, yardright, or some other cheap brand of argonite tropical play sand? I have checked all the homedepots, lowes, and ace hardwares around here and all they have is silica playsand. Everyone just carries that quickcrete playsand... Is there something I am missing here because I can't seem to find it anywhere!

[mzeinstr]

we have it in michigan...... $6 for 50 pounds.

Z

[mzeinstr]

i don't know how far from the ocean you are, but why don't you get some from the beach? and it will be live sand.

z

[Discdogge]

the funny thing is, all the sand at the ocean is silica and everyone on this forum says not to get sand from the ocean because you have no idea whats in it.

[Entropy]

Getting it off the beach is not a good idea IMO either. You should be able to find it locally from one of the home centers. My suggestion is to try to get Home Depot to order it for you, or at least ask them if they carry it and when the next shipment is coming in. It has to all funnel through Florida, so there must be some somewhere.

It is no good to us out west because the PH is too high (we have high PH soil). Believe it or not most sand is used for landscaping, so high PH soil is really only good for east of the Mississippi where the soil is usually acidic.

[Discdogge]

sorry, none of these answers really help... Is there anyone in florida that can tell me where to get tropical playsand?:confused:

[Saltz Creep]

Originally posted by Discdogge
the funny thing is, all the sand at the ocean is silica and everyone on this forum says not to get sand from the ocean because you have no idea whats in it.

Not so. Where do you think aragonite sand comes from? Carribean beaches. Tropical beaches are aragonite and coral sand.

[NewMariner]

Heres an excerpt and guidance in your quest of the holy mystical Southdown....of course this is from 4 years ago...so I dont know if the contact info is still good or not...

Originally posted by Grumpy Vet
Looks like we have two tangs in the same tank....No way am I getting in the middle of this -

I do have additional information available. I followed the ever so loquacious TAC and did some digging....and I think we have some good information. Nice memory TAC.

What is listed below comes from goby on the ReefCentral boards over a year ago. When you see first person - it is him speaking - not Grumpy. I just cut and pasted a bunch of threads together so it made sense even out of context. Then I just looked up a few addresses....and you now have the information of the company that sells the sand to Southdown who sells it to HomeDepot who sells it to Northeastern Reefers.

_____________________________

This sand is shipped to southdown from Marcona Ocean Industries which is out of Ft. Pierce Florida. They sell to both Southdown, AND Carib-Sea. (they also sell to Martin Marrieta in jacksonville, among others). Marcona Ocean Industries, the company that mines the stuff, does so in the carribean, and has a special agreement with carib-sea. They have a sort of "noncompete" agreement that says that they will not sell sand to anyone doing reefs. Kinda like panasonic selling its 36" pc bulbs only to custom sealife. Same type deal. anyways, marcona sells to Southdown, Inc. and I am sure that they have told Southdown what the scoop is. (and Southdown probably told HD).

How do I know this? I spent ALOT of time researching it last year, and actually talked to the plant manager at Marcona. Nice guy, I talked to him for a while, and he eventually asked what it was for.,.. I said...."uh.... not for fishtanks???" and he said "right answer" and then proceded to tell me all this stuff. The one thing that he did warn about was to NEVER EVER mention that you would be using it for aquarium use. Glad I had been thru this already with panasonic trying to get cheap PCs.
Thread (http://archive.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=956&highlight=southdown)


I contacted Marcona, and the deal is that they usually only sell in bulk. What is bulk you may ask? 100tons. I have worked out a deal with the plant supervisor at marcona to get a truckload (pickup truck - about 1 ton) of oolithic sand (washed dried and sifted) for about $20.00 I have also worked it out to get a truckload from jacksonville of the non strained variety (full of shells and stuff).

All of this comes from a cay in the bahamas where Marcona has a 24/7 mining operation and fills a boat that has a 3000ton/hr conveyer! (big boat) anyways, they WILL NOT SELL IT TO YOU if you even mention the words: fish, aquarium, tank, reef, saltwater, etc. They WILL sell it to you if you tell them its for your shrubs in your front yard and that you have used it before lots of times and that you are sure that this what you want. The key here is that you have to make a trip to either Ft. Pierce or Jacksonville, FL Monday - Friday 7am-4pm. Thats it, no alternatives. I am thinking about doing it soon, but have to take time off work... i will try and post here if i do get it, just to fill everyone in.

Give them a call - tell them you want it for your bushes. They will sell it to you.. but you have to shovel it yourself.. (the smallest front end loader they have carries 5 yards )

________________

Thanks to goby for all that work a year ago! Here is how to get in touch w/ Marcona

Marcona Ocean Industries
20 Avenue M
Fort Pierce, FL 34952
561-464-1836

4018 Retford Dr
Jacksonville, FL 32225
904-646-3595

There you go Southern Reefers - have at it. Appreciation for my dilligence, hardwork & effort can be sent in the form of frags.

GV

and then the thread: http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=26193&perpage=25&highlight=southdown%20florida&pagenumber=1

[ethompson]

Hey mzeinstr,

I live in Michigan and I've had trouble finding that sand. I've checked with several Home Depots and they say they won't be carrying it any more.

Have you seen this stuff lately? If so would you tell me where?

Any help would be appreciated (I'm trying to avoid spending $220.00 for sand)

Thanks!!

[zoocrazy]

do a search in the selling forum, there was a guy in florida with 55g trash cans full of southdown sand for sale-cheap!!

[kbmdale]

I'll get flamed for this, but just go get some playsand. I have had no problems out of plain old playsand.

[Discdogge]

Originally posted by Saltz Creep
Not so. Where do you think aragonite sand comes from? Carribean beaches. Tropical beaches are aragonite and coral sand.

I meant at the beachs here in jacksonville... All of the sand here is crushed sea shells and sea shells are silica.

[mecold]

I Live in brunswick ga about an hour north of you.. My home depot here was able to look at this sku# 578-819 (Yardright tropical play sand) and at a store in pennsylvania. Supposedly I should be able to pickup about 20 50lb bags at $4.99 apiece in about a week and a half.. Well time will tell if this will actually happen.

[scchase]

First crushed seashells are not made outa silica they use the same calcium to build shells that corals do just in a different matrix second silca sand will not disolve in your water any more then your glass tank will not so long ago your glass tank looked just like that silica sand its just been melted and purified.

[Discdogge]

well i am using silica play sand right now. im not worried about it killing anything in the aquarium and i knew it wouldn't when i put it in there. The big thing with me is i think the argonite sand looks better and it doesn't seem to trap air bubbles in it like the silica sand does. The silica play sand seems to be way more ground up and is alot finer.