Southdown or similar?

dantimdad

7500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Jun 24, 2009
Messages
9,721
Reaction score
42,116
Location
Hartselle Alabama
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I am looking for southdown (I know the name changed but can't remember it).

Anyone know where in N. Alabama or Chatanooga area to get some?

Thanks,
dantimdad
 
Southdown was a brand of aragonite sand that was sold at Lowe's/Home Depot as a play sand. Super cheap and just as good (after you rinsed it) as what you could get in the LFS. Haven't seen this in awhile.
 
I haven't seen any since the Southdown branding. Old castle was the company that sold it (or sold under the Old Castle label), but I've not been able to get any real info on it in years. Some regions apparently had some left over bags (Philly was one mentioned in specific), but when I asked some well known reefers from the area, they said they'd not seen any in years, and were looking. I think it is a myth now.

I never rinsed my Southdown. The smaller particle size was what I was looking for. The story I was told is that the sand is collected from the same place (roughly) as the branded reef sand. The difference was that the Old Castle sand was processed with equipment that was not specific to reefing (might also push rocks and concrete/sticks, etc.). No big deal, though. I had small sticks in mine, but nothing of consequence.

Good luck finding more. If you find some, you may want to frame it and put it on ebay:D.
 
Just saw something on HGTV today that mentioned a sterilized, silica free play sand from Quikrete. Worth checking out. Many have used silica based sand with few issues, though (I prefer aragonite).
 
I used silica-sand before I knew better... Had much fewer problems than the phosphate riddled crushed coral I replaced it with...
 

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
Back
Top