calcium silicate

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Could the daily addition of calcium silicate be used as an additional, secondary means of calcium supplementation if the correct amount of live sponges were present?

I'm also toying with the idea of also adding calcium nitrate as I run a ATS.

The idea is to reduce the use of calcium chloride which can cause an ionic imbalance.
 
Well, calcium silicate would add a lot of silicate. The calcium nitrate might be better for the purpose.
 
Please explain the ionic imbalance you're worried about. You want to trade chloride, the single most abundant ion in seawater, for silicate? It depends on how much calcium you dose. If you have like a single coral in there and nothing else then maybe, but if you've got any real demand for calcium then you're getting a much worse imbalance with the silicate.

I don't think anyone doses enough calcium to cause even a small imbalance with chloride unless they go years and years without water changes. If that is the case, then dose magnesium with mag sulfate and actually correct the imbalance instead of adding a bunch of silicate or nitrate to the water which may cause other problems.
 
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