my venture to find play sand this weekend...

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spankey

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Dec 21, 2001
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Boyertown, PA
Well here in Eastern Pa we got hit with about 10" of snow the last two days.. This is our first major storm.. So any rate.. I decide while on the road and close to Home Depot, I would stop in and try to find some playsand for a new tank I am setting up this weekend..

I made the mistake of buying sand with silica in it, so I printed out a picture of the "southtown carribean sand" from a thread I searched here... So picture me going into a Home depot in the middle of winter with 10" of snow on the ground looking for playsand... I would have looked like a fool to have to ask the people if they had this type of playsand... The would be like, "don't you mean Rock Salt?" :rolleyes:

So any rate, there I am with my 9 year old son.. We get to the concrete isle and sure enough all sections of the playsand are empty... NOT one bag nor even an empty skid.. SO I say to my son, see I am a total morron...Why am I even thinking they are going to have play sand in the middle of the winter... So we start to leave, now mind you the only brand they had seemed to be a "quickcrete" type play sand.. At least thats what the empty section's Id card had in its spot.. So the chances of me finding anything close to what I was looking for was totaly out of the question...

So again, I am heading for the door and you have to picture this, there are only about 15 customers in the entire Home Depot.. I mean we are in the middle of a storm.. And the ones that are in the store are looking for shovels and salt...:rolleyes: So the old woman as I am leaving see's my empty cart and goes "Sir is there anything wrong, can I help you?" I kindly state no that they were out of what I wanted... She said "Oh sorry about that".. I say its ok.. Now I was going to leave right there but my stupid sense made me tell here why I was there.. I mean how stupid am I going to look when I tell her I was looking for playsand in a major snow storm....LOL....

So low and behold I turn around and look at this kind old woman and tell her, Ah I was looking for playsand and didn't expect them to have any anyway.... GET THIS, I ALMOST FELL OVER RIGHT THERE IN THE FREGIN' STORE I TELL YA...

This woman looks at me straight faced and goes, sir, "We have two bags of play sand right here behind the counter" I am like ah its the quickcrete stuff.... So OMY HOLLY GODNESS its two bags of Southtown Carribean Sand... I look at my son and my son looks at me and says NO WAY!!!!!!!!

I needed exactly two bags to set up a 46 gallon bowfront tank this weekend.. I was estatic.. I looked at my son and said. " I gotta share this with the gang on the forums..."

Figured you guys would get a kick out of this.. So it seems that the Home Depots here in good'ol eastern pa sells southtown, incase anyone is interested.....

I found my sand in a haystack and the Eagles won... It was a great day....

Take care everyone..
I hope you all got a kick out of that story.. I know I did.....

Spankey
 

schigara

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Jan 2, 2005
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Spankey,

Funny you should mention......... I'm in Atlanta(don't care about football, heh) and am setting up my first SW tank whick is a 75g and I spent all day trying to locate Southdown or Oldcastle playsand with no luck. I finally gave up and bought the quickcrete crap, put it in the tank and fired up the RO/DI and started filling the tank. While the tank was filling(sloooowly) I got back on this forum and the first new thread mentioned Southdown and the guy said that WalMart carried a playsand called Garden Basics and was the exact same aragonite sand as Southdown and Oldcastle. I called aroud to 3 different WalMarts till I found one that had some and went and picked up 4 bags(enough for the tank and sump). I got home, siphoned out the water and scooped out all the crap, silicate sand and am now filling back up with the aragonite in place.

2 of the places I called today asking where I might find South or Old were SW LFS stores and they said they had never heard of such a thing but graciously offered to sell me Carib Sea sand at $29.95 per 50lb bag! Really nice of them, huh? I got the same stuff from Wally for $2.47 per 50lb bag! Highway robbery is bad enough but this is downright rape of the consumer!
 

Gealcath

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Silica playsand works just as good as Aragonite based sand (like Southdown), for any serious buffering to happen by using Aragonite sand the PH has to be relaly acidic, and Silica Playsand doesnt contribute much to Diatoms because Diatoms only use free floating Silica.
 

spankey

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Dec 21, 2001
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Boyertown, PA
Now I beg to differ with you on that one Gealcath, not to start an opinionated argument here.. I have been reading about the so called "carribean Playsand" on numerous saltwater forums... I have read many posts and all seem to state that you do NOT want the silica.... It contributes to diatom algae... And beleive it or not my sand has been in my 20 gallon nano for about a month now and its covered with........you guessed it, diatom algae....This was the quickcrete playsand, with silica....Absolutley no good.. I am not stating that someone can't use it.. But if I can have the normal sand (carribean) I would feel much more at ease....Just my opinion and the opinion of others...

Now mind you, if I put this carribean sand in the new tank and in a month its covered with diatom algae, then I will retract my opnion... And let others know as well...

Again not to start an argument or disagreement. Just something I read from a number of people's opinions....

Spankey :eek:

Oh yeah and for most looking for this suff at the local home depot's. I was informed on another forum to look in the garden center not the concrete/sand side.. That seems to be the overlooked trick....
Just in case anyone else is looking for this stuff as well..
 
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skippy2

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You are going to get diatoms with Southdown. It is just part of the 'new tank' syndrome. Nothing to worry about at all. I also looked everywhere for Southdown and couldn't find it. Out of desperation I called a reef shop 50 miles from me. They had it. Only problem was they wanted $9.00 for a 40lb. bag. Still much cheaper than the bagged 'livesand'. My brother-in-law lives about 10mins. from the reefshop so I had him pick it up for me. I used 3 bags for my 55. I stored the extra 1 in the trunk of my car. A few months later the owner of the reef shop I always go to saw it when he was carrying ro water out to the car for me. He saw it and needed it so I traded him for a bottle of Kent calcium.
Spankey, you will get diatoms but like I said it is no big deal.
 

spankey

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Dec 21, 2001
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Boyertown, PA
Ok -

Thanks skippy for clearing that up. I appologize if I sounded unsure.. I was really reposting what I read in other threads... So the diatom is normal and will disapate.... Thats a good thing to know...

Thanks
Spankey
 

Gealcath

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Since Diatoms only use free silica and silica sand does NOT dissolve in water, it does not contribute very much to Diatom algae. In fact aquarium glass is Silica based as well, alot of what has been said before is outdated, aquarium technology and maintenance progresses as fast as computer technology does, you buy a top of the line PC one day, and 4 months later its already obsolete.
 
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