Tropical playsand

[redxlch]

Hello all,

Looking for tropical playsand in San Antonio area to start curing for new tank. Any suggestions on where to look?

Thanks.

[Tim Marvin]

You don't need to cure playsand, it is dry to begin with and there won't be any die off. Are you talking about culturing?

[redxlch]

Curing cultering same to me. Yes, I wamt to get it going in buckets adding some flake food and take a couple inches off each week for a new tank.

[JimD]

Why dont you just add all the sand to the tank at once, then seed it with some sand from an established tank and let it mature naturaly?... Never heard of the flake food process...

[BA]

ya same here...flake food??? the process which Jim was talking about is great, get reg. dead sand for cheap... get a cup or two from some peeps u know with thriving fug.s and seed ur sand, there will be tons of life..

[redxlch]

Already have a place to get some live sand. I need some economical sand for a couple inshes of substrate. Believe me, curing or 'culturing' tropical playsand in buckets with a powerhead and a heater then adding a table spoon of flake food every week coats the sand with bacteria. Thsi meathod doesn't cause the drastic chemical change in the aquarium or coat the pumps, glass, fuge, etc. with crap.

The original question was the where abouts of tropical sand in San Antonio. Thanks for the suggestions though.

[redxlch]

Please visit the attached link:

http://www.billsext.com/rocknsand.htm

[Nano_Steve]

simply adding flake food to a bucket of sand with some water and a powerhead will NOT have the proper bacteria you need for a healthy sand bed. the bacteria that will form from that method will most likely be harmful(if any bacteria forms at all). take the suggestion of the members that have thus far given their advice and put the sand in the tank and get a cup from an already established tank.

-steve

[Tim Marvin]

Hmm, there might be something to this.....Are you going to add a small piece of LR and a couple hermits or something to your buckets? At any rate, Home Depot and Lowes carry play sand. It isn't South Down, but works...

[redxlch]

I really appreciate the advice and suggestions. All I asked was where in San Antonio I could get some tropical play sand. Everyone has an oppinion, unfortunately except where tropical playsand can be found.

Thanks anyway.

[::pete::]

After several threads and posting on silica based sand as opposed to ... ?

The Ca based sand is a white sand and playsand that is silica based has a tan or brownishish color. Both will work, but the look is different and the refraction of light to get the corals from different angles will also be different off a darker sand.

The post with billsext.com is from NC where "SouthDown" is available in your local HD. It is wanted so much that a pallet disappears in a day after shipment.

I will be going back to get my family and tank and if there is any available it will come back with me. The problem is it is seasonal.

[redxlch]

After several threads and posting on silica based sand as opposed to ... ?

The Ca based sand is a white sand and playsand that is silica based has a tan or brownishish color. Both will work, but the look is different and the refraction of light to get the corals from different angles will also be different off a darker sand.

The post with billsext.com is from NC where "SouthDown" is available in your local HD. It is wanted so much that a pallet disappears in a day after shipment.

I will be going back to get my family and tank and if there is any available it will come back with me. The problem is it is seasonal.

Thanks Pete. My company has trucks going all over the place and I could get on the phone and track it down, but I thought I would run it by some locals first :)

[captexas]

Red - you can't get "tropical" play sand around here at an economical price as you want. The only places that have tropical sand here are the LFS and that is in small, over-priced bags. If you are from the east coast, tropical sand is very common at hardware stores under the Southdown name or it's new owner's name. Your best bet is to have one of your trucks pick some Southdown tropical play sand up from a Home Depot on the east coast or get a truck to pick up some PureAragonite.com sand. The PA sand isn't that expensive, just when you add shipping into the cost it starts getting a little high. There have been a few group orders done on both types of sand in the past. Further attempts were made to get a local HD to transfer some from another store that had it, but the HD people are not that cooperative.

[redxlch]

Thanks for the link captexas, purearagonite has a distributor in Arlington, Tx.

[Sunhutch]

Ive been trying to get something that might work but I'm not having much luck with the feed store.
See thread http://www.maast.org/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=2570
If you can get some southdown/aragonite and wouldnt mind a group order, I would like to get some. Im sure Rampuppy would like to get some too, as well as some others if the price is right.

[GaryP]

redxlch,

I'm not being critical here, but you might want to remember that there are other beneficial creatures in LS besides the bacteria. That is why we often add donated LS to help establish it. There are all kinds of small invertebrates in LS. Many of these may be added when you introduce LR. Adding nutrients (such as flake) to LS will promote the culturing of aerobic bacteria, but will not introduce the anaerobic and microaerophilic bacteria that you need to complete the nitrogen cycle. That is, cycling nitrogen from ammonia all the way to nitrogen or nitrous oxide gas. Those bacteria live at low oxygen levels deep in the sand bed. This is the reason behind using deep sand beds and plenums.

I hope that you find this helpful,
Gary

[captexas]

Pete - If you have any extra sand on your trip back, let me know, I will need some for my 240g.

Shoot, if I had trucks running around that area or to the Pure Aragonite distributor, I would haul some back here and sell it to club members and even the local fish stores around here. People always need sand!

[alexwolf]

I need some for my new fuge too......

[::pete::]

Ill have the wife look and hopefully there will be some she can purchase now!!