The way everyone talks about Southdown, I thought it was the holy grail of substrates until I used Southdown for the first time on my
refugium.
Aragonite. Nice and clean. New. Cheap. And NEVER AGAIN.
I must have washed that stuff for hours and it wouldn't come clean. I finally switched to a
HOT Magnum filter with the micron cartridge and ran it in the
fuge tank and stirred it twice a day. After 4 days, it would still cloud at the slightest disturbance. After 2 weeks of twice daily stirrings and daily filter changes, it mostly settled so that a pump wouldn't continuously kick up a cloud. Then, and ONLY then, did I attach it to my main circulation system after which it has been fine.
Frankly, the cost savings over buying
Carib sea just isn't worth the time and I'd never add it to a running tank because of the cloudiness. It's too fine grain,
IMO.
Just my opinion, but the experience was so strong, I thought I'd share.
