Old Castle Tropical Play Sand

Discussion in 'Sand' started by skennelly, Dec 7, 2004.

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  1. skennelly

    skennelly Coral Banded Shrimp

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    I took the advice of alot of people on this board and set out in search of Old Castle Tropical Play Sand. Being December in Chicagoland I didn't think I would be able to find it. But with a lot of calls to different Home Depots I ran into one with 18 bags in stock. I bought 2 for me and 3 for my friend. So I now have 250# of sand sitting in my truck and to think I only spent ~$35.00. Compared to what I would spend in the lfs.

    Filling the 90 gallon tomorrow and adding live rock on Friday.....
     
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  3. dfwatson

    dfwatson Astrea Snail

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    Glad you could find some. I talked to the Old Castle rep and he said when the stock runs out of this sand there wont be any more of it. So if you may want some for later , Get It. I think the mining company figured out that they could sell this kind of sand to LFS for way more than people wanting it for sand boxes
     
  4. skennelly

    skennelly Coral Banded Shrimp

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    Sorry I didn't mention which HD, guess I was over excited. They had I think 10 or 12 bags left, bring tape because many of the bags were torn.

    Home Depot
    600 Meachum Rd.
    Elk Grove Village, IL 60007
     
  5. Blade_Runner

    Blade_Runner Gigas Clam

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    HI,

    For my very first post, I'd like to thank you. I'm heading there right now. I found this site 2 weeks ago and have been looking at multiple HD's for TPS. I'm setting up a new 210 and this could easily save me over a hundred which will go right into more live rock. Wish me luck.

    THANKS!!!

    Bruce
     
  6. Birdlady

    Birdlady Finback Whale

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    Make sure to rinse it REAL good before adding it to the tank. :D
     
  7. Blade_Runner

    Blade_Runner Gigas Clam

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    Success

    Thanks for the lead. There were 8 bags. I grabbed the best 6. Good thing it was 21 degrees out as all the bags have holes. They were all frozen solid. Since I have seed sand from an old 130 that sprung a leak about a month ago I'll probably have an extra 2 or 3. I'll post up after I finish setting the tank up just in case anyone wants the left overs.
     
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  9. skennelly

    skennelly Coral Banded Shrimp

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    That's Great....glad I could help. I went through the same thing although I must say it was pretty easy to find the sand compared to others on the board....sorry to make anyone feel bad.....

    As birdlady said, rinse it real real good, and even then you'll have an almost milky cloudy tank for 2 days, but it clears up nicely.
     
  10. Blade_Runner

    Blade_Runner Gigas Clam

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    Thanks again Skennelly,

    I've just been looking for a couple of weeks. Funny thing is my brother in law is an asst. manager at HD and he didn't know what I was talking about, not could he run it down. Anyway since this is a new tank, I just dumped 200 pounds in and am rinsing it right in the tank. I really didn't want to try and do it in a 5 gal bucket. I'd be here 4ever. I guess I'll need to fill, stir and empty it 5-6 times. I think that plus my old sand, will get me to about 3-4 inches. I'm shocked that the 200 pounds only netted me about 2 inches. If I'm not missing it, I could easily dump 400 pounds into this tank.
     
  11. Blade_Runner

    Blade_Runner Gigas Clam

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    Hmmm, I just ran the calculations. 280lb should = 4" 350=5 420=6
    I have about 100lb mix of crushed coral and argonite from my old tall 130 to use as seed. So if I if I'm not mistaken if I want to try and get some deep bed benefits I might as well wash and use the full 300. If I go that route, it will be my first deep bed tank. On the oher hand, I've heard that the anerobic stuff happens at a much shallower depth than originally thought. 2-3" and 4-6" isn't necessary.
    Any opinions?
    Oh, I still plan on running a denitrifer reactor in my sump.
     
  12. Blade_Runner

    Blade_Runner Gigas Clam

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    [quote author=birdlady link=board=Sand;num=1102482039;start=0#4 date=12/13/04 at 18:03:53]Make sure to rinse it REAL good before adding it to the tank. :D[/quote]

    Wow, no kidding! This stuff has more "silt" than anything I've seen and I've been keeping tanks for decades. I think I know why they don't recommend it for marine use.  ::) Patience is a virtue.  ;)

    Thanks for the heads up. ;D