Looking (begging?) for Sand Donations

[canadawest]

Hey everyone, here's the scoop!

I have finally plumbed in the little 10 gal refugium tank I got from Big Al's last week. (only $20 for a 10 gal with lighted canopy, no lights!)

BTW... Had it drilled at Delta Glass, those guys are awesome as everyone else laughed when I told them how small the tank was!

Anyways, now I am looking for some fine sand to create a DSB in there. I had a little leftover Caribsea Aragamax Special Grade sand, but I want to get some finer stuff too.

So if you have a cup or two of Southdown, sugar sand, dolomite, etc, please let me know. It doesn't have to be live either, so if you have leftover in a bag somewhere, donate it to a good cause!

[StirCrazy]

you comming to the island I could give ya a bag of dolomite.. ony 4 bucks for 40lbs hehe


Steve

[canadawest]

No plans to visit the Island anytime soon Steve, but thanks for the offer.

Perhaps Victor has some of that Dolomite lying around?? Hmmm....

[reefburnaby]

Hi,

Do you want live domolite or the stuff in the bag ? Around here (say Revy), its about $2.50 for 40 pounds....more than enough for a 10 gal.

- Victor.

[One_Divided]

steve where did ya get that dolomite sand? I think I could use a bag.

[canadawest]

Hey Victor, thanks for the info. I didn't realize it was so cheap! I'll go check out the local Revy and see what they've got.

Do you have a description of the brand/type that I should be looking for?

[StirCrazy]

hmm I can see I am going to have to go buy the other 10 bags fast.. Just kidding.. I got it at canuck rubber Adam.

Steve

[reefburnaby]

Hi,

I don't have the bags anymore, but I recall a white, pink and blue bag. I think the other Steve (Tigger) bought some. Tigger ?

- Victor.

[Tigger]

The dolomite I bought was Mighty White Dolomite. It is the only one they sell at Revy. I returned all of mine though (except for the bag I opened, because when I tested it in a small tank, it took forever for it to settle. If you just touch it, you couldn't see clearly for hours. Victor said that it will do this for the first few months, but after the bacteria grows on it, it will settle quicker. I didn't want to wait that long, so I bought silica sand instead. This stuff sinks fast and clears up in less than a minute. (However it is more expensive).

Within the first night, I could see the little worms in the sand against the front glass and now I am seeing quite a few bubbles. I am still adding the sand to my tank, as I don't want to add too much at once and kill whatever is under the sand.

Steve

[DJ88]

If there are worms and such that dont like how much sand you put in they will move.. what happens when there is a storm? hmm? images/smiles/icon_wink.gif

Don't worry about putting too much in.. They are animals after all.

[StirCrazy]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Tigger:
If you just touch it, you couldn't see clearly for hours. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
hehe with new sugar sand you touch it and you can see for days not hours images/smiles/icon_smile.gif

[Tigger]

The sugar sand that I have sinks within seconds.

[reefburnaby]

Tigger,

I think Stircrazy is talking about the oolic sand (expensive stuff).

- Victor.

[StirCrazy]

ya sorry I didn't specify that.. I was talking about the caribsea oolic sand.

Steve

[Dolf]

How bad is this Dolomite really?

I was going to be putting it in within the next week (when Canadian Tire gets the shipment) but if it takes months before I can see my coral and fish I think I'll go with silica or some such thing.

Thanks.

[StirCrazy]

Dan check out my post substrate test in progress it was hours befor it was fairly clear and 2 days for it to be crystal clear. now that was in still water but it cleared a lot faster that the caribsea calcium sugar sand (which still isn't clear) . I also stired up my dolomite last night to see how fast it clears out and I just looked and itis crystal clear again.
now putting it inot a exzisting system with powerheads and such might make it take longer.

Steve

[DJ88]

Dan,

Putting sugar sand into a system and waiting for it to clear up is not a long wait as it has been shown here. With proper circulation your tank will clear within a few days.

Little tricks can be done to speed up this process. By taking a powerhead and putting a piece of tubing on the end of it, then submerging the other end in the sand bed you will clear your tank very quickly. The sand bed acts as a large filter and traps the minute particles suspended in the water within itself. As well the circulation of your system with a skimmer running will clear it up. Other tricks are putting hagen powerheads with quick filters on help speed the process up. My 90 was done only with those and took the longest at a couple of days.

Steve,

Don't take this the wrong way but..

Sand in a glass with no circulation, no salt or bacteria to speed up the process of the sand bonding together is not the same as an actual functioning tank. I have switched four tanks from Crushed Coral to a DSB and none lasted for more than a couple of days. Once I found out about the powerhead trick by the next day the water was clear enough to see everything in the tank with only the very fine sand particles still suspended in the tank. Those particles then settled quite quickly.

Could you please mention this when telling others of what you are doing. Just so those lurking don't get the impresion that their tanks will never clear up if they use the oolitic sand. Mis information will just serve to confuse others. we are here to help get rid of the confusion. Not make more.

There are pros and cons for each type of "sand". I understand the desire to save a few dollars here and there but IMO & IME this is a hobby where if you don't spend the money and do it right the first time you will most likely end up redoing it.

[ 09 January 2002: Message edited by: DJ88 ]

[StirCrazy]

Darren actualy the sugar sand in my glass is clearing much faster than I have witnessed in tanks with cirulation and bacteria growth.. heck from saturday night to tonight is only 4 days the tank at the lfs took almost 2 weeks to clear the first time then another week after it was stired up. and there is lots of bacteria in the water I used.. it was strait out of my fishtank .. I didn't use tap water.

this power head trick does sound good but Ihave heard it befor and I am not sure I quite understand it.. by doing this won't you suck sand throught the tube into your powerhead?

hehe I didn;t mean to give the impresion that the sugar sand isn't clearing, it just isn't clearing as fast as the dolomite in the glasses. as far as I am concerned it doesent mater to me if it takes up to two weeks to clear I got nothin but time images/smiles/icon_smile.gif

seriously thought my main concern in this exparament is how it affects the PH of the watter not the clearing ability.. that just turned out to be a suprising bonus.

Ph's today
dolomite 8.2
caribsea 8.0

Steve

[ 09 January 2002: Message edited by: StirCrazy ]

[DJ88]

Keep in mind this is a quick drawing.. images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

http://members.shaw.ca/montipora/pictures/sand.jpg

How it works is that you take the outlet of the powerhead and attach some tubing to it. Submerge the other end deep in the sand bed and turn it on. images/smiles/icon_smile.gif The sand bed acts as a trap for the smaller particles that were in suspension in your water column. Put more than one and you are moving twice the H2O and sand underneath. It makes a neat little bubbling area. looks like somehhting is coming up from under the sand. images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif Kinda like the worms on the movie Dune. images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

Hope this helps..

[StirCrazy]

haha ok I thought you were putting the suction end of the pump into the sand like a undergravel filter.. oh do I feel stupid now images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

Steve

[DJ88]

hey if I can forget that a Diode will rectify your AC really bad you can have a break here.. images/smiles/icon_wink.gif

[powerreef]

Hi folks I'm new to your board, and I dont live in canada, but I did for about 20 years (North Delta). I'm in Washington st. just down the road from you. Anyway I have a contact for Argonite sand. it is the equivant to carib sea. that most of us in the US use for deep sand beds. The price is 17.00 us per 40 lbs bag If you people need some maybe I can help you guys out.

Ps. I dont sell the stuff but we have a hard time getting sand to on the west coast so I ordered a skid for myself and fellow reefers down here.

[DJ88]

power,

Welcome to the board!

you have southdown????? I shall be visiting. Do you have any right now?

Nice to see you here.. images/smiles/icon_smile.gif

[powerreef]

Hey dj88 no its not southdown. I tend to stay away from Southdown for fears of cross contamination for other products and metals. This product is called pure Carribean aragonite and is made just for the aquarium industry.it is uniform graded sand particles sized between approximately 0.18 and 1.2mm. Away we have a hard time getting sand to, so like i said i bought about 2800 lbs. I need 500 lbs for my tank and thier is a bunch of people knocking on the door. Anyway it cost me about 17.00 us for a forty pound bag. I live about 20 miles south of Seattle. I could try and save you some.

Mike

[Shadetree]

Mike,

Welcome aboard, you were the one with Newfy's right?

Scott

[powerreef]

Thats right, I remember now, we through a few surrey jokes back and forth. How are you doing

[Shadetree]

I am doing pretty good, we now have a little sister for the newf
http://www.shadetree.homestead.com/files/chloe11201.jpg
Good to hear about the sand, there are a lot of reefers up here that could probably use some. You are setting up a 280 right?

Scott

[DJ88]

Well if you can save me three or four I'll take them Mike.

Thanks a lot for letting us know.. images/smiles/icon_smile.gif

[powerreef]

hey shad beautiful newf. They are great dogs. I will try to save as much as i can but people are just stock piling it. I geuss if you can get a few people together I could always order you another skid. I'm sure the Border wont know if its can or us bought.

http://community.webshots.com/storage/1/v2/9/48/42/24994842lKJJAyiWOz_ph.jpg

[Jack]

yeah, i think that stuff you are talking about it what i saw on that webpage www.purearagonite.com. (http://www.purearagonite.com.) It's really cheap but the shipping to bring it out here.... the cost would be the same at JL or something. I would actually be interested in some sand to. you have no idea how hard it is to get cheap stuff out here. DSB's cost so much and its just sand! The stores think it's white gold.

[powerreef]

Hey Jack thats exactly what it is. I have set this guy up with a few distributors so he cuts me a deal. My cost landed in my driveway in South Seattle is 17.00 US for a 40 lbs bag.

Oh ya shad my tank is 280 and about 400 with sump and ref.

[Dolf]

Thanks for the reply and suggestions. I will probably go with dolomite now and I have 2 powerheads to help clear it. They don't push much water, but its only a 75 Gal.

Thanks again!