Randy: sodium silicate and kalkwasser

philosophile

New member
Question specific to randy, but if anyone else knows... Feel free to chime in.

I've got a tunze ato with kalk reactor. I was thinking of putting sodium silicate in the topoff reservoir, but I don't know how that would affect the kalk, if it would at all. If I put it in the res, the silicate would be pumped through a cloud of concentrate kalk powder before it got to the tank.

So should I be worried about this? Or should I dose the sodium silicate seperately from my ato/kalk?
 
Randy has not been around for weeks but to answer ur question:
its never wise to mix chemicals together but on the chemical note sodium silicate is not very soluble anyways.
 
Well I'm using a 40% liquid solution already, and randy doses it for his sponges. I'm dosing for diatoms. It makes a cloudy precipitate with magnesium when it first hits the water, but that eventually dissolves. But I don't know what it does with kalk specifically...

I'll just hold off putting it in the reservoir until I get a definitive answer.
 
not sure if he doses or not but i am not a chemist nor as knowledgeable as Randy. maybe someone else can chime in better. sorry couldnt help more.
 
I always dosed the silicate separately. It might precipitate in the Kalkwasser, or precipitate the lime. It's quite basic. I'm not enough of a chemist to be sure, though.
 
silicate is more soluble at high pH, but I don't know if calcium silicate is going to precip or not. I would just dose them separately.
 
Here is Randy's article on dosing sodium silicate fyi:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/1/aafeature1

Though he doses limewater; this is the recommendation from the article for dosing sodium silicate:


"..I’d disperse the concentrated silicate solution into some fresh water before adding it to the tank, and then add it to a high flow area. Because the pH is high, you likely will see some cloudiness that is mostly magnesium hydroxide. The magnesium hydroxide will dissolve without a problem, but to be safe, add the supplement in a high flow area...."
 
Well I'm using a 40% liquid solution already, and randy doses it for his sponges. I'm dosing for diatoms. It makes a cloudy precipitate with magnesium when it first hits the water, but that eventually dissolves. But I don't know what it does with kalk specifically...

I'll just hold off putting it in the reservoir until I get a definitive answer.

Just wondering why you're dosing for diatoms, something most of us are trying to suppress?
 
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