any substitutes for southdown?????

[marc harrison]

what can you use besides southdown. since its so hard to find i dont even want to try but is there any thing that i can find at a LFS or somewhere. i dont want to use just live sand cause it gets expensive thanx. :D :D :D

[ssgibby]

You can also use pure crushed lime stone. I think people add it to the flower bed to buffer the PH.

[Pineapple House]

Any Calcium Carbonate based sand should do fine. Calcium carbonate is known for not changing the level of your pH. Silica sands will also work, but I think they are very unatural looking.

PH =)

[fishfreek]

To identify calcium carbonite based sand put a put a bit of sand in to a pile and then pour a small amount of vinegar into this pile. The vinegar should bubble up as it reacts with the sand. If you get no reaction then its silica based.


There is a company that sells aragonite sand and the web address is www.purearagonite.com (ps. if that dont work then i miss spelled aragonite AGAIN)

[chem-e]

I used the Quickcrete sand that is found at Homedepot for my main tank because Southdown wasn't sold in California. And the best part was that it costs under $5.00/50# bag. I've had it in there for about 4 months and I haven't had any problems with it other than a small diatom bloom, but that's it. After that I found someone selling Southdown in California, so I bought a few bags and used some of it in the refugium. The only difference is that the Quickcrete was really white and not quite as fine. I also noticed that the Southdown was much easier to stir up (initially).

[drscheck]

A lot of people get confused when trying to find media for a sandbed, so I would like to clear it up. Southdown sand is not a type of sand it is a brand name. Southdown Inc. manufactures a lot of different gardening and landscaping stones and sand. Southdown Tropical Playsand is what aquarist use to build DSB, because it is Calcium Carbonate (crushed coral skeletons), but more importantly because of the size and shape of the grains.

It does not matter what brand of sand you buy, as long as the grain size and shape are appropriate for a sandbed. approximately sugar grain sized and it should be oolithic (rounded by water erosion).

silicate sand are very sharp and jagged if you take a close look at them, they will work for a sandbed, but some critters won't populate the bed because it irritates them as the burrow.

Hope this all makes sense.

[BCHLOVER]

Nice explantation Thank you.