Million Dollar question ~ Lowdown on Southdown

[MelodyDurham]

Hi Reefahs,

Anyone seen any Southdown for sale yet? I went by my local HD tonight and was told the sand being milled out of the Carrabean is now illegal. !!!! Illegal?! What?!!? Maybe it really is Reefers Crack.. hehe

Just wanted to see if anyone's heard similar rumors.

I'll be starting up my very first reef tank at the end of this month and would like to get my hands on some o' dat!

Thanks!
Melody~

 

[Liam]

Hi Melody ,get yourself down to Russells garden center in Sudbury i think they still have some,it won't last though.
-Liam.

 

[Kevin McG]

How much do you need? I have a 50# bag in my garage.

 

[ReeferMedic]

Russells has at least 1 pallet left, I have a couple I could spare also......

 

[MelodyDurham]

hrmm.. I dunno? Anyone got a formula for figuring sand poundage?

I'll have a ~24x24 inch bottom.

Melody~

 

[Liam]

hrmm.. I dunno? Anyone got a formula for figuring sand poundage?

I'll have a ~24x24 inch bottom.

Melody~

maybe this would helphttp://reefcentral.com/calc/SandBed.php

 

[Scuba_Dave]

Ya had to figure the Sand would run out. There is only so much out there & they must have "mined" a ton of tons of it.
I think this is only the beginning, in the future Live rock, eventually will become hard to find and/or very expensive.

Do a Search, "Caribbean sand mining" the Caribbean islands & others are realizing they are destroying their beaches thru sand mining

http://marine.usgs.gov/cgi-bin/locator?selected_topic=n&selected_region=3&selected_content=n

http://www.csiwisepractices.org/?read=88

 

[Kevin McG]

hrmm.. I dunno? Anyone got a formula for figuring sand poundage?

I'll have a ~24x24 inch bottom.

Melody~

I have a small program that I got from the inland reef website.It seems to be down I can e-mail it to ya.

 

[marco67]

It would be nice if this was about not destroying beaches, but it's just about business. Southdown was bought out by Yard Right, Yard Right is owned by Old Castle stone products. Old Castle is down sizing some plants and the old South Down Facility was closed.
BTW I did speak with them at Russells on Monday and they do have just less than 100 bags left.
Rumor also has it that there is 6 tons soon to be unloaded somewhere in Chatham

 

[Greg Hiller]

FWIW I believe that the Southdown type of oolitic sand occurs from natural precipitation in the ocean. At least that's what it used to say on the old ESV buckets of the stuff. If you look at it under a 'scope, that's also the way it looks. Kind of rounded, little balls, or egg shaped pieces. I don't know where exactly they mine it from, but it sounds like it Might be a renewable resource. FWIW, while it's not a bad idea to squirrel some away, I kind of doubt as a product that it's just going to 'disappear'. Might go up in price though.

 

[MelodyDurham]

I got my sand! I drove the 45 minutes down to Russell's Garden Center and picked up a few bags. Yay for flexible work hours!

From what I could see, there wasn't much left.

Russells is such a beautiful, quiet, peaceful place. I wonder what it's like on the weekends.

Thanks for the help, everyone!

Melody~

 

[chuck]

Greg,

I would also think it is a renewable source, but it would probably be similar to crude oil. I mean, maybe we are mining it faster than it can renew

 

[~Flighty~]

Anyone who sees some should buy all they can and sell it within the club. I hate the thought that this stuff is about to be off the market and people are still buying it for their kid's sandbox.

 

[clamm]

if/when i see it ill buy the entire pallet...i am around both hd's in nashua almost weekly...no quite and will keep an eye open. It will turn up...

 

[Scuba_Dave]

Soooo...I shouldn't of used it to make cement to support my hot tub ?

 

[clamm]

if it means that your more likely to have the girl in your avatar over for a dip, then Pour away!