The elusive southdown

[shawmutt]

I stopped in home depot to check on some diy projects I have planned, and checked to see if they had the elusive southdown. What they have is play sand, silica free, from the caribbean, but it isn't called southdown. It's simply called play sand, from a company called OldCastle in Pennsylvania. It was $5 for 50 lbs! I can't believe the lfs sells 40 lbs for like $30. I thought I might be able to make some money, buy like 20 bags and sell it off, but it costs around $80 to ship anywhere. So much for that idea .

 

[reefrunner69]

OldCastle is the new name of SouthDown Any of these three are the same...OldCastle = SouthDown = YardRight

 

[r95rdstr]

Buy, buy buy!!

 

[Red Virus]

Thanks for the tip. I would of got all my sand from the lfs
I checked out home depot and found some SouthDown for only $3.26 for a 50lb bag.

 

[Gauge]

Okay, fill me in on what "SouthDown" is.

 

[reefrunner69]

Okay, fill me in on what "SouthDown" is.

Southdown is an aragonite play sand sold for use in sand boxes. A DSB functions best with an aragonite sand of a particular grain size range. Southdown sand fits the bill and (despite what they print on the bag) is aquarium/reef safe. The other more widely known aragonite sand of the proper grain size range is CaribSea's Aragamax, in my LFS it retails for 30.00 per 20 or 30 lb bag. Southdown (same sand, actually processed by the same plant in Ft Pierce, FL) ranges from 4.00 - 7.00 per 50 lb bag

 

[cmor1701d]

One caveat on buying Southdown from HD. It is usually stored right next to pesticides and/or and lawn fertilizer products. I asked and got some bags from under the top rows. I still rinsed the outside of the bag before opening it and dumping the sand into my tank. Just a simple precaution.

The sand may appear to be wet or damp. This is due to condensation and is not a problem, other than the sand tends to clump and stick inside the bag.

 

[Gauge]

Wow, that's pretty cool. Do you use live sand on top of the SouthDown? If so, do you have problems with them mixing together?

 

[reefrunner69]

Yes you should seed your dry sand with a few lbs of live sand, mixing should not be a problem with such a small ratio.

 

[d9hp]

Dont get Old Castle, some one at RC called them and all it is is just crushed limestone. This may just be one specific kind, but there is a picture of the kind I have, and its limestone. I got some and now I have to remove it... ARG