Domolite lime and other lost arts...

DJ88 · #1 01-22-2002, 02:13 AM

I’ll start my reply off with this and refer to it through part of my post.

Steve,

There is the assay of Caribsea Aragamax. Save ya the time.

Victor,

I understand how Dolomite is formed. My problem is with the mechanical operations involved. Caribsea states right on the package of their product that there is No metals or harmful Impurities Do you get that on the package of dolomite? Caribsea is putting their name on this statement and to me I will believe it. Read the label. If it is not clear enough to read I will link to the full size image or email it.

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So, it is best to run a magnet through your domolite (or playsand or even Caribsea), so that it is relatively clean. Still think it is unsafe ? Send me a rebutal..

I just ran a magnet through my Aragamax and pulled out nothing. Now if I had a bag of Southdown I would do that immediately. It is playsand, not aquarium grade sand or gravel. How would it look if tanks started crashing and it was due to impurities in the sand? Especially where they state right on the product there is none? They would lose a whole lot of business. They make a fortune off of this sand why risk it?

IMO there are no standards (as there is no need) when dolomite is mined(or there is ones set for lawn requirements only). It is going on your lawn. They aren’t figuring on it being put in a tank with live animals. So what if some oil or hydraulic fluid gets into it. Who cares if the driver takes a leak off the side of the front-end loader? Shards of metal? Who cares. It will corrode in time and move down into the lawn. That is all. Add some Iron into the lawn. It may need it. Maybe some copper who cares, who knows? [img]images/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]

I care. Why take the chance I say. You have even said it is risky. Why risk an animal’s life to some unknown variable. It’s a game of Russian roulette IMO. Probably you will be fine most of the time But what if you get that bag with a hunk of something in it that will kill off the whole tank? What will you say then to some kid who just started and has invested every cent he has in it? Sorry? I’d rather send that kid to something that is made for his or her tank. If down the road they feel confident enough to experiment and are willing to risk the lives of the animals in that tank so be it. I still won’t recommend it.

With the chemical makeup of the Dolomite I understand that there won’t be massive dissolving of the substrate. But when I see that the main part of dolomite is MgCO3 I get nervous. In seawater you only have small amounts of magnesium in solution. In time your sand bed will dissolve. It takes time, but there is enough of a pH drop to get that breakdown. I run my reactor at 7.0 now and it is dissolving at the same rate as it was well below. So you don’t need the low low pH to break the substrate down. I am seeing this change in depth of my sand bed. So to a small degree it is breaking down releasing the minerals into the water. With the dolomite being 60%MgCO3 what happens when you start introducing all that Mg into the tank?

Randy Holmes-Farley even stated you should probably keep an eye on your Mg levels and if they get to high do water changes. So to me I read that as the Mg can increase in your system. How do the corals react to this increase in Mg? I don’t know. Therein lies my concern. If I don’t know, I won’t do it. That is my point with the chemical make up of Dolomite and how it interacts in my system.

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Sadly...it is now inside my calcium reactor

Wasn’t it Aragamax we were comparing here? [img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img] j/k

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The think the thing that confuses me is why is Caribsea sand not white ?

Aragamax is not completely CaCO3. See the pic I posted. I am betting that the additional makeup of the sand changes that color. Anyways when it is underwater in my tank it looks white to me. Which is just fine and dandy.

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Are we being "tricked" in to thinking it is pure calcium carbonate ? What is that stuff anywhay ?

I don’t think we are being tricked. They have stated what is in it and made the guarantee of what is contained in the Aragamax right on the package.

In all honesty I am still not convinced that Dolomite is a safe substitute. Caribsea packages and guarantees that it’s product is Pure and Safe. There are so many different distributors of Dolomite that I doubt they all have the same standards as Caribsea for purity…

[ 21 January 2002: Message edited by: DJ88 ]