Southdown sand where to buy?

[kris]

lol.. i know what you mean.... will have to play some time.

[john.r]

I did some asking around on some of the boards
and I'm buying snowwhite silica sand[size of sugar] from a mason and mortar supplyier.According to many reefers there is no problem with this sand[DR. RON-REEFCENTRAL]
$5 FOR #50 This stuff is also used for sandblasting in carpainting shops.

[Jack]

that should work good, nice find. but rember you silica doesnt buffer the water

[StirCrazy]

Jack, neither does caribsea.. well it does a bit but nothing you can rely on as if you ph goes down low enuf to start desolvingany significan amount of caribsea you have other problems that are more important :D

Steve

[Jack]

wow? no kidding me? I thought that these substrates are made of calcium carbonate etc, I know in a reef tank you are supposed to dose buffers too. But I thought the sand would do some, wierd

[StirCrazy]

there was a test done between sugarsand, crushed oyster shell, silica sand and dolomite, all tanks had a PH crash with in 3 months. I think the crushed oystershell was the best for buffering but I am not sure.. Does anyone have the link to that article?

Steve

[Chin_Lee]

I've been doing some research on Southdown and just like everybody else on this BB, I have already basically given up on getting my hands on SD. But I am interested in the silica sand for sale by our local sand company in Burnaby called Target. They sell this sand called Lane Mountain Silica Sand and it looks pretty good for a DSB. The phsyical, chemical property analysis's link is:
http://www.targetproducts.com/catalo...s/lmsilsnd.pdf

and its in Adobe format. Take a look and give me your opinion on this product.
They have more products available for selection at

http://www.targetproducts.com/catalog/sands.htm

but it looks like the Lane Mountain sand is the best so far with property of 99.56% weight as Si02. It comes in 55/80/100/3000/3700 lb bags and its decribed as off-white/cream white in color. It looks like gradation LM 70 and/or LM 125 would be excellent for DSB.
I've sent them an email inquiring on pricing and hopefully they will point me to a local distributor. But I think if we get enough interest they can get us a bulk order. Even without the bulk order, I think silica sand itself is relatively inexpensive compared to the aragonite/carbonate based sands. And according to some experts, there really is not a difference unless you want to run aragonite/carbonate based sands in your calcium reactor.
CWLee

[Rob]

Try chicken grit or crushed oyster shells this stuff works wonders.
Not sure if you guys have chicken farms in BC....I assume you do.

The chicken grit is made of shell rock....prehistoric lime stone.....98% calcium carbonate........this stuff is so high in calcium that the tank walls turn white in sections.
This stuff is not fine like sugar but same as aragonite particles. It is gray in color...this would be the only downside....but it really isn't that bad.

The crushed oyster shells are even higher in calcium content.......this stuff is flat but somewhat larger in size....shiny like the inside of a shucked oyster shell at the restaurant.

Bonus is this stuff prevents the onslaught of hair algae and it is very cheap.....8$ for 50 pounds.

I live in Ottawa where we have lots of chicken farms.

Cheers and good luck.

[StirCrazy]

TYPICAL CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF CRUSHED OYSTER SHELLS
CaCO3 (calculated from Ca) 97.5 %
Boron 1400 ppm
Calcium 39.00 %
Titanium 100 ppm
Silica as SiO2 (calculated from Si)< 0.01 %
Lead less than 15 ppm
Sodium 9200 ppm
Copper 9 ppm
Magnesium 1400 ppm
Lithium less than 10 ppm
Iron 430 ppm
Arsenic less than 2.50 ppm
Strontium 1400 ppm
Nickel 75 ppm
Manganese 430 ppm
Heavy metals as Pb less than 20 ppm
Aluminium 3500 ppm

After seeing the the bags when I used to feed my chickens, yes I grew up on a farm, make your jokes now :D and knowing how dirty it is I would never use it. yes it can be washed but the high level of phosphates is enuf to scare me away.. I might as well be using Calgary water :D
seriously though.. there are a lot of contamanants in crushed oyster shell that washing will not get rid of and that IMHO you don't want in your tank.

Steve

[reefburnaby]

Hi,

If you are interested in Target Sandblasting sand, it is about $5 to $8 per 50lb bag and a 5 bag minimum order.

- Victor.