# Does gravel contain silicate?



## vstar (Dec 29, 2009)

I was just wondering if Carib-Sea Peace River Gravel contain any silicates like some sands does? I e-mailed Carib-Sea with this question and have not heard from them. Thanks


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## cjacob316 (Dec 4, 2008)

some sand? all gravel and sand, unless it's pure dolomite or aragonite, will contain silica, it's the most abundant mineral on earth it's in just about every rock formation, which turns into rocks, gravel and sand


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## Pali (Dec 22, 2009)

Yeah

Why do you wanna avoid silica ???

I use silica quartz in all my tanks :thumb:

Just curious


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## LSBoost (Jan 21, 2010)

Pali said:


> Yeah
> 
> Why do you wanna avoid silica ???
> 
> ...


I'm curious too, I use PFS I think it's 100% (or close to 100%) silica.


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

It may be a carry over from reports on play sand for kids sandbox. Silica is not good to breathe as kids might. My daughter was in a bit of panic about that. We finally agreed that it just isn't really good to snort your sand! In a fishkeeping world, I have not heard any complaints. I try to take most reports of that sort with a bit of wait and see.


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## cjacob316 (Dec 4, 2008)

silica is in about everything non organic and its not dangerous, at all.

yes pfs is 100% silica sand, pretty much all natural sand is. all the other minerals in rocks weather down into different and finer materials than silica, like mud and silt, which become shale and siltstone, silica becomes sandstone, but there is silica within the compounds of those finer minerals, it's the pure silica that only weather down to sand grains which all comes from quartz


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## Pali (Dec 22, 2009)

Okay thats news to me that play sand can be dangerus.

I think pretty much everything I played with, or had fun with as a kid is illegal now days, removed from puplic playgrounds and so on.

No wonder kids are borred today LOL


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## KaiserSousay (Nov 2, 2008)

*No wonder kids are borred today LOL*

Yup, those were the good ole days..
Munching on some lead based paint while climbing around the asbestos insulated pipes.
Wish I could remember them, but my mind seems to wander when I cough.


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## cjacob316 (Dec 4, 2008)

sand is bad because of cat poop


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## KaiserSousay (Nov 2, 2008)

cjacob316 said:


> sand is bad because of cat poop


No, cats are bad when they poop in our sand.
:lol:


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## vstar (Dec 29, 2009)

I was trying to find the reason why I had a rather large out break of diatoms. Never had this happen before and I have set-up a lot of tanks. The reasons for diatoms are silicates,nitrates/phosphate from water source and nitrates from overfeeding and whatever else. I cut back on my feeding and change the lighting a bit and the diatoms are dying back.


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## D-007 (Jan 3, 2008)

KaiserSousay said:


> *No wonder kids are borred today LOL*
> 
> Yup, those were the good ole days..
> Munching on some lead based paint while climbing around the asbestos insulated pipes.
> Wish I could remember them, but my mind seems to wander when I cough.


 :lol: :lol: :lol: ... man you come up with some good ones. Totally made my evening, thanks bud :thumb:


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## KaiserSousay (Nov 2, 2008)

vstar said:


> I was trying to find the reason why I had a rather large out break of diatoms. Never had this happen before and I have set-up a lot of tanks. The reasons for diatoms are silicates,nitrates/phosphate from water source and nitrates from overfeeding and whatever else. I cut back on my feeding and change the lighting a bit and the diatoms are dying back.


My tank had been running for about a year when the brown grunge started to spread.
Did way too many changes over that time for any, Ã¢â‚¬Å"Ah HaÃ¢â‚¬Â


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## Pali (Dec 22, 2009)

vstar said:


> I was trying to find the reason why I had a rather large out break of diatoms. Never had this happen before and I have set-up a lot of tanks. The reasons for diatoms are silicates,nitrates/phosphate from water source and nitrates from overfeeding and whatever else. I cut back on my feeding and change the lighting a bit and the diatoms are dying back.


All right that makes a little sence, I would look up bioavailable silica and read up on that.

There is a big difference in silica, I would say most sands and gravels contain very little bioavailable silica. On the other hand I read that new plastic products contain bioavailable silica, so new powerheads and stuff like that might temporary be a bigger source of silica then your substrate. But again it's only a matter of time till it's gone from the plastic!

Cut backs on light and nutrients available to the diatoms will deffently help cutting back on there growth too, I personaly only have diatoms in my substrate and not so much in the rest of my tanks. My MTS's seems to munch of the diatom algea in the substrate, I can always find collections of them where I can see the brown gunk thru the side of the glass. When I vacum my substrate I try to go over these area a extra time or two.

@KaiserSousay ROFL :lol: :lol: :lol:


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