I did read that earlier Garf however, gravel will not work in my intended application/design.
Yes the same Green-Grabber stuff, but any thick-grain sized non-aragonite aquarium substrate will work.
Here you go Floyd;
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/3/chemistry
So, in a tank operating in normal reef conditions, aragonite will not dissolve. Quite the opposite in high ph photosynthetically adapted systems, Especially so in low fluid exchange scrubbers like this one.This shift considerably lowers the carbonate concentration. Using equation 8, one can calculate that the concentration of carbonate drops by about a factor of 3 for a pH drop of 0.5 and by a factor of 10 for a full pH unit drop. Consequently, aragonite first becomes soluble in seawater when the pH drops below about 7.7 (this value might be more like 7.5-7.7 in reef tanks where the alkalinity is often higher than in seawater). That level is attained in some sand beds, and permits the dissolution of some of the sand.
The rate of dissolution is fairly low, however, because the rate of delivery and degradation of organics (or certain nitrogen compounds) deep enough in the sand to permit a pH drop is fairly low. The rate will, however, vary from tank to tank as the different ways of delivering organics to deeper parts of the sand will vary (diffusion; movement by organisms; death of organisms, etc). Note that the need to oxidize the organics in deeper parts of the sand to permit dissolution of the sand has nothing to do with the oxygenation of the sand. It has more to do with the fact that at near surface regions of the sand, the pH will be closer to that of the tank water by acid and base transfer from the water column, and you need to be deep enough to permit a lower pH to become established.
With that considered, I guess there is no reason to try and figure out what this green grabber stuff is. Aragonite sand is pretty darn rough.
Well, there's a line in one of the Shakespeare plays that says "The lady doth protest too much methinks"
SM, what non-toxic reef safe epoxy are you using to adhere your Green-Grabber stuff to the box? Or...is that a secret as well?
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)