All you EVER wanted to know about Southdown

[Jfishdr]

southdown in Phoenix

southdown in Phoenix

JPfish,
I believe there is still most of a pallet left at the Home Depot in Tempe. It is on Elliot and Kayrene. I first heard of it a week ago on one of the boards here. I'm in Denver currently, but moving back to Phoenix in 6 weeks, so I had my brother go and pick it up for me.

Hope that helps.

Reed

 

[soosberries]

The Arizona store is in Tempe, at Kyrene & Warner - I was there on sat 5/10 - I bought 15 bags and they still had almost 8 full pallets left @ $10.35 bag

Norm

 

[saltykirk]

Hey grumpy vet! I just had to make this my first post on Reefcentral! Way to go. I bet w/ all the royaltys from this post you can buy the sand the LFS sell!! One thing to keep in mind kids, a kitty cat would poop in all of it.

 

[Scuba Dan]

Sand

Sand

Im soooo new to this hobby that im still in the reserch stage and this sand topic is wild. I priced sand at the local FS and :eek2: Man is that sand outragous!!!!! How can a FS charge so much for sand? Is it because its says its for a tank?? Im going to start looking at HD and WM around my area. I live in the Tampa, Bay Florida area.Can anybody around this area tell me where to get the right stuff for a reef tank? I read that the south down stuff was only aval. up north. Any help would be great. Thanks sooo much for the help.

 

[Groove]

Wow! I haven't posted in a while. My tank has been doing great though. I'm amazed they can charge that much for sand at HD. I'll have to check my receipts from when I started my system a little over a year ago. I want to say I paid $2.95 a bag.

FYI: I started with a 6 inch bed, and now a little more than a year later, it's 4 1/2 or 5 inches. I'd say I lost a little more than on inch over the last year.

 

[drillsar]

I wanted to know if someone can tell me if I got the right sand..

I went to Home Depot in Bloomfield, NJ they had Tropical Playsand is this the correct sand?

 

[Groove]

It should be:
SouthDown Tropical Play Sand
SKU # 578-819
UPC # 0-210026-16865-5
Model # 420-100

And it should look like this.

 

[drillsar]

Really weird.. I have same looking bag but dont say southdown on top. Everything the same..

 

[drillsar]

With this vinegar test what kind of vinegar you use?

 

[Casino]

Did it say Old Castle on top? Any kind of white vineger should do the trick.

 

[saltykirk]

Scuba Dan,
You guessed it. They charge that much just because it is for fish tanks. However, they being the "name brand" sand companies. Your LFS paid well over the HD price for Southdown. Aragonite sand has really very little use for anything but sand boxes or fish tanks. You don't see the stuff used in concrete or anything, atleast not in the US. Mexico might because of the really white looking concrete I saw being poured while there on vacation.
I hear that some HDs are charging more per bag now. So, I would say the guy mining or the company importing this stuff probably caught on. Why did I say that, someone long before me already has. Whooopeeeee!!!!!

 

[drillsar]

didnt say anything on top. Bag looks exactly the same.

 

[saltykirk]

Hey VA reef, you mentioned you are getting cyanobacteria? Why do you think that is the sand? I am just curious cause usually that is when I know to change my RO membrane. That's just my experience though. I hope you whip it.

 

[Putawaywet]

Looks like not all Walmart sand is created equal as well. I was just out at my local store here in SoCal yesterday and decided to cruise the garden section just for kicks.

They had the orange bags with green trim that were labled as Garden Basics play/garden sand but I noticed the stuff looked really dark in color. When I examined closer I discovered it was packaged by some company called Nature's Organics? or something like that out of Tempe Arizonia.

So it looks like Walmart uses multiple suppliers same as HD.

Brett

 

[Saliki]

^^^^^
Ya....i checked one Walmart store here in Tampa Bay area. They had Quickcrete Sand, and Sand made by Greenleaf.

 

[Saliki]

^^^^^
Ya....i checked one Walmart store here in Tampa Bay area. They had Quickcrete Sand, and Sand made by Greenleaf.

 

[Scuba Dan]

Sand

Sand

Saliki,
Nice to see a local reefer Let me know if you find sand that can be used in a tank.
P.S. Like your pic!!!! The King rules

 

[Saliki]

Honestly from my reading....almost ANY of the packaged "playsand" CAN be used for a tank, but not all of it is well suited for a DSB.

Mu search continues........for the REAL DEAL here in Tampa bay.......

Remember...ELVIS is STILL king!

 

[Groove]

Was at a "major building material supply store" last night and looked at sand just for kicks. Sure enough, the same packaged white sand is now being shipped by Old Castle and is being sold at $5.99 a bag. If you go to the other end of the rack they have normal bags of sand for $2.49. Both were 50# bags... Prices are going up but still worth it.

 

[Norseman]

Found some in NJ

Found some in NJ

FYI -

The Home Depot in Hightstown, NJ 08520 on Mercer St. (Rt. 33) has several pallets of Southdown. I picked up 4 bags for $4.99 each. There was one pallet that the bags actually say Southdown on (the one I pulled from), then the packaging on the rest all look exactly the same except the top of the bag doesn't say Southdown and they say Old Castle on them. They are all packaged in Easton, PA, though, so I guess it's all the same - just different bags.