how much and which sand is best???

[girodave]

I am building a 180gal reef. My plan is to have around 250 pounds of live rock and keep soft corals and reef safe fish. I have never built a tank this large and I'm not sure what the consensus is on sand these days. Southland vs. aragonite??? I have heard Home Depot has Playsand that works, how would I know if it is the right stuff? I would love help!!!!

 

[krusty_krab]

GD-

There are several southland sand threads about, read those.

That said, I would like to expand upon your last question re: the sand- How Much? (IE how deep...)

I have a 1.5 inch sand bed tank that is getting moved to my house from a freinds. I have the opportunity to add more. Or change out the bed entirely. ... well I wont do that, since I have no holding tank to cycle the new sand. But I could add a whole bunch!

I have been reading Nick Dakins "The Marine Aquarium Problem Solver", which is a great newbie book. Really excellent. He poses the following question in regards to DSBs- and excuse me Nick as I paraphrase- while the anoxic portion of the DSBs will release added calcium, it is an uncontrollable process. As opposed to a calcium reactor that can be dialed in just so. Hmm...

Wanted to get the vets take on this. I am in CA and I will be looking for southland carribean playsand at my local home depot tomorrow. I have no expectations on finding it, but you never know...

Also if I can order a pallet of it, I will post so on the board, see if there are any other CA'ers that would be interested.

KK

 

[Palmetto]

Actually, it is Soutdown playsand at Home Depot- and it is Aragonite.

You won't find it out west, I don't believe.

You can also get good sand at purearagonite.com.

Shipping Southdown to you would be the biggest expense, unless HD will do that long of a stock transfer.

 

[girodave]

So, I keep hearing that HD in the west will not carry southland.... Where is HD getting their sand?

Is southland a white in color aragonite sand? What is all the talk about southland??? Is everyone freaking out about southland because because a lucky few found it at HD for cheap, or because of the way it looks and performs with bacteria growth?

I have been using Crushed Coral for years and never worried about the price because my tanks ranged from 2-40gals, not to mention the days when no sand was thought to be the best way. Now that I am building a 180 reef, sand is a big decision. Is crushed coral Aragonite? I am not looking the save a buck (but don't want to buy live sand or pay more for sand than rock). I am building my dream tank and want the best of the best when it comes to this tank.

Thanks for all of your help!!!

I live in northern California if anyone knows of a good place to get sand.

 

[Palmetto]

The reason for the pursuit of Southdown is that it is a fine, oolitic, aragonite sand that is available for about $5 per bag.

CaribSea Sugar-sized aragonite sells for about $30 for a smaller bag, and is essentially the same thing.

You do not want CC in your tank because of the way it traps food and detritus- the sugar-fine sand will allow for naturally occuring sand-dwelling animals to multiply and thrive, as well as allowing for denitrification in anoxic (no oxygen) zones.

Sugarsized aragonite sand is generally viewed as the ideal DSB building material in depths of 4" or greater.

 

[AWD]

The Great Salt Lake sand is beautiful and very white. A marine biologist tested it and said there isn't anything better for the marine aquaria because of the amount of calcium. It is calcium carbonate and I've seen it in tanks with very fine to fine sized. I need to run up there and get a couple hundred pounds. I know of a couple of people who use it and their tanks look great. One person said after a couple of weeks all (torch, frogspawn, candycane, and similar) LPSs split after putting in the sand. E-mail me know if interested.

I don't know the biologist's name sorry.

 

[psionicdragon]

Which part of N. Cal do you live in?

 

[girodave]

I live in Santa Cruz. I am planning on ordering from pure carribean soon.

I talked to this guy who gave me the scoop on southdown. Keep in mind this is one guys research not mine.

He said the southdown sand is bagged at a plant that bags all kinds of materials including fertilizers. He thinks that there is a risk in buying the sand because you don't know if they had just finished bagging fertilizer the day before and your sand has some residual fertilizer from the conveyor belt that they did not clean. In the same sentence, he thinks it is worth a shot to set it up, put in a couple fish, and see if they live..... Well, setting up a 180 for kicks to see if the sand is clean is not an option.

I think I know more about sand than I ever wanted to know and now know what I am going to do. Thanks to all who helped!!!!

If anyone lives in the bay area I am ordering sand. The only catch is that we would have to order 70 bags (one pallet) to get the shipping break (I need twelve bags). The break on shipping goes from paying about $15 a bag to $5 a bag in shipping. We might be able to get a smaller break on a half pallet.

Also, I would love to get a cup of sand from someones tank. I will pay for it.

 

[MattM]

He said the southdown sand is bagged at a plant that bags all kinds of materials including fertilizers. He thinks that there is a risk in buying the sand because you don't know if they had just finished bagging fertilizer the day before and your sand has some residual fertilizer from the conveyor belt that they did not clean.

Many people have used Southdown sand with no obvious problem trend vs. using Carib Sea or Pure Aragonite sand. While Southdown does produce other products (cement, lime, etc.) they're not really too much in the fertilizer business, and I would not expect that product to be produced in the same plant where the aragonite is mined.

In any case, here are microscope photos of it: http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=9606

It's pretty much just oolitic aragonite grains and nothing else.

 

[SPC]

He said the southdown sand is bagged at a plant that bags all kinds of materials including fertilizers

-I have heard this rumor also (a competitor wouldn't have started this would they :roll: ). Anyway, if you will notice it says that Southdown sand is used for play sand. This being the case, the government would not allow any contamination to take place especially where children are involved.
Steve

 

[wombat1]

I heard this too, from guess who??? The salesman at purearagonite.com!! That makes sense that since it's playsand it wouldn't be contaminated. Bottom line, use SD if you can find it but purearagonite is basically the same exact thing, just more expensive. The only difference is that purearagonite lacks some of the very smallest particles that SD has. I asked Rob Toonen himself and he said use it if you can't find SD.

 

[psionicdragon]

Nippons in SF is a good place to look for sand. Check them out. Call 411 since I don't have the number hehe. Its between Spruce and Geary.

 

[beerbaron]

He said the southdown sand is bagged at a plant that bags all kinds of materials including fertilizers. He thinks that there is a risk in buying the sand because you don't know if they had just finished bagging fertilizer the day before and your sand has some residual fertilizer from the conveyor belt that they did not clean...

i have been to the southdown distributer that is about a half an hour away from me and i assure you they dont do fertilizer. they are a quarry company which handles landscaping stone and gravel. i can say however that they might deal with other materials in the other distributers. the one in easton pa doesent.

oh yeah not to rub it in, but i can actually go there and pick up a few yards of this in a pickup if i wanted. one of the nice things about being on the east coast. you guys have better livestock over there though. go with southdown. please dont waste money.
HTH
BB

 

[girodave]

Ok, you all have convinced me that southdown sand is the way to go..... Thanks for your help!!!

Now on to my other question... How much sand is enough? I don't like the look of a thick sand bed. If I was to get Southdown or similar size granual aragonite, what would be a minimum?

Thanks for all the help!!!

 

[beerbaron]

depends on what you want, you could go bare bottom. everyone here are big time proponents of DSBs. i have seen many posts elseware about them crashing and killing the whole tank. im not taking the chance. either way you go you will probably get flack for it by someone. i have about an inch in my tank. the best thing to keep sandbeds clean IMO are fighting chonchs. wait till you get some funk down there for them to eat though b4 you get one.
HTH
BB

 

[Anonymous]

I recently set up a 150 with about a 4 - 5 inch sandbed, or 8 bags of aragonite in the main tank. I would say 2 inches is on the lower side and 6 is on the upper. Anything in between and you should be fine. Again, no matter what you do, someone will think it is wrong.

If you can drive up to Tropical Paradise in San Leandro, near Oakland, it is the place to go for aragonite. I bought 12 bags of it and got it for like 22 or 24 buck a bag.

Good luck

RR :mrgreen:

 

[ChrisRD]

How much sand is enough?

If you go with Southdown, and your 180 is a typical 72" X 24" X 24" size, you'll need approximately 97 pounds of sand for each inch of sandbed thickness you want. It comes in 50 pound bags, so if you round off, that's 2 bags per inch of sandbed.

I agree with Righty on the depth of the sandbed.

 

[lawndoctor]

I suggest you spend a few minutes checking two recent posts on reefcentral about problems with this play sand before you make your final decision whether saving $200 (8 bags x $30-$5) is worth it. HTH