Want to come play in my live sand?

[Lora Dehner]

Can't wait to tell you how stupid I am. I made a bid on live sand over the internet. I got the best deal on it ( $4.00 for 75lbs.), the shipping was a steel at $70.00. How's the old saying go? If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. It was!!! I got it home and couldn't wait to see all the goodies hiding in it. I started sifting and the only thing alive in it was my hand. Some guy that bought some earlier from the same person told me it was a scam and went on to inform me that it was Southdown Playsand. What an expensive lesson. I actually had nightmares about it . Someone stole my sandbox with my so called live sand in it. At lease they had the sense not to pay $74.00 for it.
OK, all kidding aside. Can I add this safely to my new tank, that I have not set up yet? If so, how do I go about cleaning this before I put it in. It's really milky looking. I cleaned most of it out but it still gets my bucket cloudy. If you respond and you have time, please let me in on some thing you may have done when you were new to the hobby, and you look back on it now and say "How could I have been so stupid"! I look forward to hearing some stories so I don't feel so bad.

[ErikS]

I can't answer anything but if it is southdown - don't rinse it - you want that fine grain stuff! It makes a mess when you set up the tank, but it's good stuff.

(this coming from a person who spent an entire morning rinsing out my southdown - promptly corrected by folks on this BBS - lol)

Besides, it could have been worse my LFS sells agaronite (Carib Sea) for $35 for a 20lb bag, including sales tax that means you would have gotten 40lbs at their prices - lol.

You have seen this thread, right?

http://archive.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=61036

[GoodgREEF]

Drop that 5 gallon bucket into a large storage bucket (25 gl plus) from rubbermaid. Your tank will go dry before that thing overflows.

[GoodgREEF]

Opps wrong thread. Sorry.

[intekhab]

Hi Lora,
Take a look at this "thread" (http://archive.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=61036&highlight=karen)


Looks like you are not the only one who were victimize by this person:(


50lbs Southdown bag is only $5 and shipping may have cost "HIM" only $10 (max). He just defrauded you out of lot of money:( Sorry.

Use the sand for sure, but try to get your money back by following what those people are doing.


Good luck

[Bernie]

Lora, it is good you can laugh about it. I just recently bought a 100 gallon off of ebay for $40.00. I got it home and it fits in my old 55 stand. Somehow I get the feeling it is not a 100 gal, hehehehehe. I decided that is a sign to resell the tank and stand and buy a 120 reef ready, hehehehehe.

[Lora Dehner]

Bernie,
It's funny how tanks always look bigger in pictures on E-Bay (HA HA). I am feeling a little better.

[Little Reefer Boy]

Lora,

Do a search on Southdown. I am sorry that you did not get what you paid for.

Now the good news....
Southdown, as cheap as it may seem, is a very good thing! :) It is not "dirty" sand. It is actually the SAME Caribbean aragonite sand that the LFS sells as CaribSea Aragamax Sugar-sized sand for $30 to $40 per 30lb. bag. So while it is not "live", it is still the good stuff. Don't throw it away. People all across the country are trying to get Home Depot to transfer it to their local store as Home Depot originally only carried it on the East coast. I know many people here in Oklahoma that have gladly driven down to Dallas to pick some up from a reefer that arranged several shipments to his house.

[RockTheCasbah!]

Intekhab wrote "Take a look at this "thread""

I tried accessing that thread, but was denied access to it. What is going on?? Is it now forbidden?? I got scammed by the same person on Ebay. I did contact him directly and he was very nice about it. I promptly got an apology and all my money back (I bought 180 lbs of the stuff!). He also asked that others who call please leave a message on his machine to request a refund so that he can refund your money. Apparently people have called and hung up when his answering machine picks up. It doesn't appear that he is avoiding calls because sometimes he answers and sometimes he's not home.

[Lora Dehner]

RockTheCasbah,
I did e-mail him and he did refund my money. At least he was honest enough to do the right thing. Sad thing is everyone makes mistakes, but that was a costly mistake. I hope he learned a lesson.