Looking for some ideas. - Page 2

tsouth · 05-17-2008, 11:10 PM

It would work but like alpine said, there have been mixed results due to silica. Unless the package was labeled silicate free then I can't give any guarantees. What is the name of the company that manufactures the sand you purchased? I believe Oldcastle is the new owner of southdown and is the same product. This would be safe.

To be absolutely safe, I would purchase this here
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...21&pcatid=7321
It's what I currently have in my tank and I can't complain at all. It's the same stuff as southdown from HD with the caribsea label on it. + an extra ~20 dollars

mbmijo · 05-18-2008, 09:14 AM

I have not bought any sand yet. That is just one item I saw in the hardware store.

alpine · 05-18-2008, 01:53 PM

Tsouth
Actually southdown and old castle are one in the same product.the original compnay that distributed SD & OC sand was bought out by a Mexico based company several years back.Its the reason why the sand is not available at home depot's anymore.

Caribsea is actually southdown sand.When they first started selling rebranded southdown sand to the aquarium hobbiest,part of the agreement with southdown was a no compete clause. Southdown could not sell any of there aragonite sand for anything that had to do with aquariums or to any other company or person for aquarium use.The original company is actually based here in jacksonville.About 6-8 yrs ago a person could just drive up to the original company and buy the sand,as long as you did not mention in anyway that it was for aquarium use.You also had to buy a min of 1 ton of sand.

I sure wish we could still buy southdown as it was a very inexpensive sand.Personally I believe Caribsea had something to do with the fact that its not available at home depot's anymore.It was also sold under the name of yard right tropical play sand.

Heres a link for those of you that might find yourself needing a ton of sand,or interested in doing a group buy.

http://safesand.stores.yahoo.net/ornatplaysan.html

I havent crunched the numbers,but it seems like one would save money buying a ton of sand over buying the same amount from a brand like Caribsea.

mbmijo · 05-18-2008, 02:21 PM

Here are some pictures of my sump area.

alpine · 05-18-2008, 05:29 PM

Its definately posible to hook the 2 together and run one of them as a fuge.Looks like you have a store bought stand.I only say this because of the minimal height that it appears to have inside the stand.You could go 2 ways with this one.You could use the 10gal as the sump and the wet dry as a fuge and let the fuge gravity drain into the the 10 gal.Or you can go vice versa.

To be honest it would be way easier for me to show you a couple of different ways to plumb it,then to try and explain it to you.

tsouth · 05-18-2008, 07:56 PM

Yeah I wouldn't doubt that caribsea had some ordeal with it. Sure does stink though. Sand is not cheap!

alpine · 05-18-2008, 09:53 PM

I thought about trying to get a hold of the original company to see if I could purchase a ton of it.The way I saw it,if I was able to I doubt I would of been able to hold onto it for long when local reefers found out I had a large amount of it.

Also all Caribsea had to do was put in a complaint to southdown that aquarists were purchaseing southdown sand to use in there aquariums from home depot.Even though it was labeled as play sand,im sure there lawyers would be able to throw the no compete clause in there faces.

Oh well,hopefully one day well get another break and find an aragonit based sand for cheap.

OneDummHikk · 05-19-2008, 01:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grochmal

No, I was just curious.
It hasn't been available here in the past, and from what I've read it's pretty much unavailable all over now.

Yesterday Tom (tdwyatt) said he found out that Walmart is going to start carrying a calcium based play sand. He is supposed to find out what brand it will be and let TRT know.

tsouth · 05-19-2008, 04:39 AM

Sweet. I hope his findings are positive cus ima orderin the new tank todaya!!! Woo! Btw here's an article from reefkeepers magazine that covers everything we've already talked about.
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-05/newbie/index.php
this outta answer all your questions!

tsouth · 06-15-2008, 10:52 PM

SAND SAND SAND! The time is now. Where can I find me a big ol bag of sand?

OneDummHikk · 06-15-2008, 10:58 PM

I think I found the brand Tom was referring to, but not positive. It is Crayola sand. It is colored though. The thought seems to be that it is going to be either crushed glass or dyed silica sand

I know where 2 5G buckets of sand are (caball362 has them). Other than that, or the LFS, I still haven't found a source for Ca based sand other than the LFS.