Southdown Sand In Canada

[JOSH]

Hey I was on reefcentral and I came across this.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=0a66b583291c6440934d3fb033ff0baf&threadid=464835.

You can now order southdown sand in Canada.
Thought some of you might be interested

Josh

[Bob I]

Could someone fix the link so it can be clicked on please. :question:

[AJ_77]

Hey I was on reefcentral and I came across this.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=0a66b583291c6440934d3fb033ff0baf&threadid=464835.

You can now order southdown sand in Canada.
Thought some of you might be interested

Josh

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Just curious. What's the advantage of Southdown sand? If you seed it with live sand, will it become similarly beneficial?

[smokinreefer]

any media, once colonized by bacteria will become beneficial...

the hype around southdown is that it is a fine aragonite sand that was available at HomeDepot for a FRACTION of the cost of what sugar/oolitic aragonite sand was being sold for at your Local Fish store.

it is also the perfect medium for a Deep Sand Bed, which had reached its highest popularity at the same time this stuff was available.

Hope that helps, if you want more info... just do a search on "southdown".

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Thanx.

[Rikko]

Woo! A west coast reefer forum! Finally!

I was in on the RC thread linked and thought I'd mention again (for any that read it before I got my report back from the Bomix company) that Bomix sand isn't aragonite, it's calcite. Still calcium carbonate but a different composition. Is that bad? Guess it depends on how well you subscribe to the "aragonite buffers trace elements very well" theory.

[muck]

Welcome Rikko!
Glad you found us... :biggrin:

[Veng68]

Woo! A west coast reefer forum! Finally!

I was in on the RC thread linked and thought I'd mention again (for any that read it before I got my report back from the Bomix company) that Bomix sand isn't aragonite, it's calcite. Still calcium carbonate but a different composition. Is that bad? Guess it depends on how well you subscribe to the "aragonite buffers trace elements very well" theory.

Did you find any at the local rona? In the RC thread they said they don't ship further west then toronto.

As for the calcite & buffering......... I was looking at getting some "Tahitian Black Sand" and I looked at the bag & it said calcite and also that it would not effect the ph in the tank. So I am not sure it will buffer.

Cheers,
Vic [Veng68]

[Chin_Lee]

Several months ago, i read the RC trend about Bromix and got all excited about this stuff from CANADA. They have an office in Montreal which I contacted and tried getting this product directly from the company; I spent many hours trying to negotiate with their sales department to get a shipment out to BC. The shipping costs alone will outweigh the benefit; unless you are also looking to fill up a swimming pool, then it might be reasonable.
I'll save you all the disappointment: for those who have the time, keep trying. For those who don't, go buy the sand from your lfs. You are going to need A LOT of sand to make it worthwhile. They were quoting something like 50 pallets at 80 bags of sand per pallet for some price that was beyond the scope of my hobby.

[Rikko]

I'm collaborating with another canreefer to see if we can get some on the West Coast. It's looking pretty dismal at this stage, but we'll see how it develops. I also fired off an email to Target to see if they produce any calcium carbonate sands. I can't believe I didn't consider them before, since they're about the only name in all the hardware stores in the area. Still no reply (I sent it on Friday night, mind you) but I'm hopeful. Even if we would have to get a "small bulk bag" of roughly 1450kg I'm sure we could find enough interested folk in the area to divide and conquer.
I'll report back what they say.

[Rikko]

Here's what I got back from Target:


As you found out we do not really have a product that fits the bill for you
there. I am going to send you over to a friend that is the Sales Mgr for
Chemical Lime. Now there base product, Limestone, is 95% or greater in the
Calcium Carbonate content so maybe they can get you sizing that fits the
bill for your needs.

Please call:
xxx
Chemical Lime
North Surrey BC
Ph: 604-xxx

Or drop him an email.

Jim - you can call him as well if you would like. Note contact info below.

We will see if he can assist you in these requirements.

Have a good day!!


Also had my email forwarded to Chemical Lime and got this back:

Re: small quantity of calcium carbonate, we at Chemical Lime have various
mesh sizes of limestone, calculated CaC03 guaranteed 97.00 percent, the
one mesh size you may be interested in is our 14-100 mesh ( sand like
particles). attached is the typical screen analysis for the 14-100. We
supply our limestone in 20kg bags 50 per pallet @ $84.50 per metric tonne (
$1.69 per bag ) and 1000 kg bulk bags ( super sacks) @ $53.00 per metric
tonne plus $18.00 per bag and $10.00 per pallet. I you wish further
information please contact me. Thank you.(See attached file:
TEXST14-100.DOC)


The text file basically said this:


TYPICAL SCREEN ANALYSIS
14-100 MESH

Screen size % passing
6 100%
14 98.4%
16 93.4%
20 73.8%
40 47.1%
100 23.1%

*All information based on averages. Normal variations can be expected in daily shipments. Test methods conform to ASTM C25 or C110. If you require additional chemical or physical property information, please contact:

CHEMICAL LIME COMPANY
Technical Services 800-288-9676
Quality Control 800-374-2907
Plant 604-888-4333




I guess this is a possibility.. Is limestone the same thing as calcite? That I don't know, but if it is then this is essentially the same stuff as the Bomix sand.
Worth experimenting with? Discuss!

[Tarolisol]

So if this lime stuff ends up being good for our tanks did they tell you where you can get it, or would you have to order it and from where.

[Rikko]

The company is based in Langley, BC. I assume the prices quoted were for pickup. It's about an hour's drive for me but we'd probably need to converge at the same time to be able to remove a ton of it. I have access to a 1/2 ton pickup but loading the whole thing... The truck's already pretty old! :)

It would be a pretty annoying road trip from Calgary to pick some up, but there might be a local distributor in AB that has it as well.. What's one of the major named sands/cements in your hardward stores? You could probably get some data from the company on other materials.

[Tarolisol]

It all target and bomix here.