Old school Southdown sand - still worthwhile?

[Zero_Cool]

Before I got out of the hobby 12 years ago I picked up 5x 50# bags of Southdown Caribbean play sand. This is an aragonite sand that was a significantly cheaper option to other sands at the time.

This is an oolite/sugar sand size and was popular for deep sand beds due to cost.

Questioning if I can use this in my restart.

Plan to keep LPS and eventually SPS down the road. Will this sand just get blown around the tank?

Will adding a top layer of AragAlive help keep it in place?

Should I just ditch the Southdown and use new sand?

 

[blaxsun]

Probably - although you have to be careful with the flow for oolite (it can easily get blown everywhere).

 

[reefnfun]

Nope don't ditch it. Go old school and show everyone up. I have had southdown in my tanks for 20 years.

 

[RedoubtReef]

you actually found that somewhere?

 

[reefnfun]

premium aquatics used to bring in skids of it. I got mine at Home depot. This was a very long time ago.

 

[Zero_Cool]

you actually found that somewhere?

I picked it up before my first move and shutting down the tank. I have been moving it from house to house for 12 years.

 

[Zero_Cool]

Probably - although you have to be careful with the flow for oolite (it can easily get blown everywhere).

Are you suggesting I use the Southdown or that I probably should ditch it for a heavier grade of sand?

 

[blaxsun]

Are you suggesting I use the Southdown or that I probably should ditch it for a heavier grade of sand?

I use the CaribSea oolite - which looks fantastic. I just had to fine-tune my return outlets and wavemakers so as to not kick it up all over the place. I also have a parrotfish that likes to dig, so I'm occasionally blasting stuff off. It's generally fairly maintenance free and the inverts absolutely love it.

 

[Zero_Cool]

Thank you. I was starting to wonder if I had just wasted time and energy moving it so many times.

 

[FSP]

Kind of a shame to use it after so long. That's the kind of thing you pass down to your kids I do like oolite though...

 

[death-by-reef]

u can try. i wont pretend to know anything. if you do it in the experiments forum you can get a cool r2r experimenter badge

 

[OrionN]

Way back in the early 2000 I got two pallets of Southdown sand from Home Depo. They did not have that sand in Corpus Christi so they shipped it here for me for free.
it was great sand for reef tanks. I used it in my 420 gal deep sand bed and later in my 320 gal reef.