Just so I got this right.

[Barcochris]

I am going ot buy sand today, and the place in town sells it for 30 bucks a bag for that stuff that has water in it.

My question is I can go to Home Depot and get southdown playsand corect? I not sure if we have it in the desert (kind of a lot of sand around already) but I am going to check.

 

[Woodstock]

I have 90 % southdown in my tank. It is a very, very fine sand the needs to be rinsed prior to adding it...even with rinsing it you'll get a major 'dust storm' in the tank for a few days. Using skimmers, filter socks, etc will help clear it up quickly.

Any fine aragonite sand will work. You can test it by adding a spoonful of vinegar to a spoonful of sand... if it bubbles like crazy, it is aragonite.

 

[Adnuces]

You could also buy it from the lfs but don't get the live with the water in it. They sell it for about $25 for 30/bs it is more than the playsand but it is aragonite. The playsand they are selling now is silca based and won't work as a buffer

 

[Barcochris]

You could also buy it from the lfs but don't get the live with the water in it. They sell it for about $25 for 30/bs it is more than the playsand but it is aragonite. The playsand they are selling now is silca based and won't work as a buffer

I wish, In Yuma you take what they have.

 

[BoomerD]

You're not likely to find aragonite based play sand at Home Depot in AZ. Getting harder and harder to find anywhere, but is still available in parts of the North East US. I agree that the crap bagged with water, sold as "Live Sand" isn't worth the extra cost, if you have the option of dry aragonite sand from Carib Sea. (who rumors have it...owns Yardright, the parent company of Southdown)
IF you can get it for $1.00/lb, (or 30lbs/$20.) you're doing good out west. The shipping really jacks up the price for us.

 

[Barcochris]

I can get dry Aragonite sand at 40 lbs for 40 bucks. it is the best trhat I can do here. I am looking on-line right now for a better deal.

 

[BoomerD]

Shipping will be spendy. I looked into it a couple of years back...Shipping cost more than the sand did...

 

[Barcochris]

While I was out looking for sand I took little samples of each. none fizzeld except one. It was a white bag with white sand that was labled as playsand. washed and screened. it did not say silica sand like the rest. It did not go crazy but it did fizzle a bit. what do you guys think

 

[gimpy]

Sounds good. Just where did you get it and under what name? I couldn't find any thing like that up here in Flag. Sounds like you did good to me.

Frank

 

[Barcochris]

Frank it was home depot, I can post a pic if I buy it. Can anybody else confirm this. I did not get a lot of fizzle but it did fizzle.


Chris

 

[Woodstock]

It is atleast partially aragonite if not 100%.... can you get a sample of your current sand and compare the fizzles?

 

[Barcochris]

Oh,,, Good Idea Woody

 

[fidojoe]

If it was a semi-transparent white bag from home depot, and there are some black specs in the sand too, it is the same stuff that I use. No ill effects so far. There are a few other people from AZ that use it, too.

 

[Barcochris]

Yea I think that it is it. I checked a sample of LFS sand and I got about the same amount of bubbles. I think it was about 5 dollars a bag for 50 pounds.

 

[fidojoe]

Sounds like the same stuff. I soaked some of my extra sand in vinegar and I didn't get a whole lot of bubbles, but after putting a lot of vinegar in, and changing it a few times over a couple of hours, the vinegar dissolved quite a bit of the sand that I put in the container.

 

[Barcochris]

So everybody knows what we are talking about here is a pic of the bag. I found it at HD for 4.98 a bag

 

[fidojoe]

Thats the stuff! Pakmix works just fine. It does have a bit of an artificial look to it at first, but over time as you get coraline 'n stuff going, it loses that.