All you EVER wanted to know about Southdown

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The sand from looks to be about the size of special reef grade by Caribsea. I figured out the dilemma for the plain look of SD. Buy a bag of Puka Aruba shell by Carib Sea & mix to your pleasure. A little bit will yield the effect of some minor shells & rubble. It looks more natural to the Carib sites I have snorkeled than the flour effect of SD alone.
 
Is this an east coast only thread? lol...I have started my search in western Washington. If anyone has had any luck let me know please. My local Lowes and HD both carry products by Old Castle but neither offer the playsand that I need...just the silica based tan sand. Oddly enough all of the Old Castle here is distributed by Old Castle Inc. out of Spokane WA. Not PA. Probably just a local distributor. I am going back to Lowes on Monday to see if they can order a pallet for me (Silverdale WA). They guy asked why I wanted to order sand when they already had tons of it and I told him I didn't want my 2 year old inhaling silica (which is true)...so what I don't put in my new 180 will be going into my son's new sandbox. FWIW...I have found an interesting site online at www.greatnw.org which appears to be an online petition to get the non-silica based sand sold in our local HD, Lowes and Walmarts. Interesting! Well of to send a couple of PMs to some Washintonians...
 
Anyone have experience with the sand market in MI? Is it possible to get SD or alternitive in MI at a reasonable price ($.20/lb or less)? Let me know. i am going to be stating a 75g sw tank here in the next month or so.
 
Grumpy Vet said:
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.
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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
Click to expand...

just bringing this down for you rebs
 
Alright, Im totally lost. I went to home depot and saw a bag similar to the southdown bag with the little boy. The only difference is that it says on there "Not recommended for aquariums" - The Sku matched but the UPC doesnt.

Then the other one looks like it with the little boy but doesnt have Southdown on it. My wife didnt check to see if the UPC matched or not.

They both have tropical play sand on it from the carribean.

Someone help!
 
This is what the bag looks like now.
southdown.JPG
 
Nice. This used to be my baby. I'm between toys at the moment, but once I get the lighting taken care of for my new 75, there's going to be horsepower on the homefront again.
Engineresize2.jpg


95EagleTalonTSi.jpg
 
reefmagnet said:
so its safe to have it? It says not recommended for aquariums, so you are saying its okay?
Click to expand...

They state "not recommended for aquariums" because they cannot guarantee sterility unlike other companies, but other than that it seems to be worthwhile and low cost.
 
question:

someone told me it all says "Not Recommended in all the southdown bags"
This was the stuff posted in prior posts:
SouthDown Tropical Play Sand
SKU # 578-819
UPC # 0-210026-16865-5
Model # 420-100


None of the model or UPC matches. But the Sku does. What's going on?! Plus some doesnt say southdown on it but looks exactly like the ones in the pics.
 
There's been alot of discussion about the "not for aquarium use" line...some think it's just there because they sell the same sand to aquarium stores who charge an arm and a leg to folks like us..others say that there is more sterility..others say there is more straining done....who know...all I know is that if it's sterile enough for a 2 year to play in..it's good enough for me. It passes the vinegar test and it all comes from the same shores in the carribean.

I'll second it..becuase if I didn't..I'd have to be worried about my DSB since it's 4 inches of SD and 1 inch of live southdown/purchased sand (it was in another tank for a year) :)

--Fizz
 
ok, I jsut wanted to make sure that line is in all the bags. So what about the UPC, SKU and Model #? I had one that matched with SKU and the model and UPC doesnt match. is thsi the right one?
 
I will second it. You will go through the same diatom bloom w/ this stuff you do w/ the Aragamax sand. It is real uniform in size so I like to add some puka shell to it. real important for jawfish or gobie/pistol shrimp setups. Wash it for goodness' sake, it is really dusty. I favor the look of the Fiji Pink myself but, it is over kill for coral farming.
 
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