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#11
05-30-2009, 07:47 PM
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#12
05-30-2009, 10:29 PM
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I don't think that silica in rocks or substrate is necessarily a problem. I've used silica sand before without issues and if you think about it some silica compounds obviously don't dissolve readily or the whole glass thing would be an issue.
These was an article by Randy Holmes Farley a while back, I think in Advanced Aquarist, that looked at using silica based substrates. My memory of it is cloudy but he found that some sands contained higher amounts of silica compounds that could dissolve than others. It seems reasonable that the same would be true with cement.
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#13
05-30-2009, 11:36 PM
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Yes I am pretty sure that the silica bound up in the crystalline structure of glass and sand is a different animal than the kind in suspension or cement. Here are the results of the silicate tests I took at the time of my aragocrete project:
RO water .25 PPM tap water .5 PPM tank water with aragocrete 2 PPM & above note that 2 PPM is the upper limit of the test, so god knows how much silica was in that water. I didn't test the water after yanking the aragocrete and haven't tested lately but as soon as the cement came out the diatom bloom died off. I will make some more tests soon and see for sure what was going on. I haven't given up on aragocrete yet anyway and think it is good idea.
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#14
05-30-2009, 11:47 PM
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I made about 100 lbs of rock with cement. I don't have a diatom problem or any other problem. I made my rock in about march last year and I did weekly(ish) water changes in a rubber made bin in my yard. I fired up my tank in sept.
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http://www.photobucket.com/newbuthandy
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#16
05-31-2009, 04:58 AM
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I used portland mixed with different things. Salt, crushed coral, different mixes ect.
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http://www.photobucket.com/newbuthandy
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#17
05-31-2009, 03:15 PM
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I made about 20lbs of agrocrete last June, I made some with interesting shapes, some with pvc tubes through it, and some with pasta shells to create voids. I put the pieces in toilet fresh water tank so that each time the toilet flushed my rock got a water chage. I didn't notice any leaching once put into the tank.
Joe
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210 Gallon slowly gaining population. Foxface, Naso, Coral Beauty, 2 Clowns, 2 Chromis, Orange Anthias, and Striped Goby.
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