tinyreef Posted January 21, 2004 Share Posted January 21, 2004 anyone know of a safe way to dose silicates? everything i've read/found so far seems to bond almost immediately to free Mg ions (for whatever the friggin chem/tech-babble reasons). i'm looking to putz around with silicates to help bolster my sponge population growth (cryptic fuge). i've also noticed a plateau'ing of sponges on my nano and suspect silicate limitation there as well. not afraid of the diatom backlash as i can (hopefully) control the nutrient competition/balance. any chemists out there? TIA Link to comment
birdman204 Posted January 21, 2004 Share Posted January 21, 2004 tiny, hit up holmes farley at reef central in the chem forum. you will get an answer PDQ. Link to comment
tinyreef Posted January 21, 2004 Author Share Posted January 21, 2004 thanks birdy, i was thinking of posting a q at his chem forum at rdo for a while actually (been doing research). your suggestion led me to do a search (again) and i finally came up with this article. the last time i searched it didn't come up (i used a better search word this time). the article actually answered my questions. thanks. Link to comment
onthefly Posted January 22, 2004 Share Posted January 22, 2004 Hey Tiny, I saw pretty good sponge growth in my tank, until I had a "buffer/Ca" crash. Then everything has pretty much stopped! Although, I've never tested for silicates, the silica (Si02) I used was >99% silicate free......that being said, the sponges must have been "feeding" off of something. As for the chemistry lesson for the day: If Silicate (H2SiO4) has the protons stripped (which could happen, given the slightly basic environment of SW), that would yield an SiO4 ion with a -2 charge. Since Mg is a positive cation with a +2 charge.........bam! They'd hook up pretty quick! All that being said, what about adding some silica based sand in a fuge or sump compartment and swaping it out every 2-3 months or so? Link to comment
tinyreef Posted January 22, 2004 Author Share Posted January 22, 2004 yeah, i thought about the silica sand route. just too much work for me. rhf recommended using sodium silicate in that article so i'm thinking of trying that out. it should balance out nicely since i tend to overdose cacl. thanks for the chem lesson. i had read the mg attraction but didn't know the techno reasons. Link to comment
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