saltwater chemistry

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Ash

Coral biologist
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To all the (if any) chemistry boffins out there.

I have access to as much calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate as I could ever need. But I have no idea of its quality or purity. It comes from a hyperplant which uses natural sea water and via electrolysis breaks it down to sodium hyperchloride to sterilize another sea water source.

Would these byproducts be at all useful and safe to supplement, in small doses, to a coral aquarium?

Regards,
Ash
 
unless used within a reactor where the pH could be controlled by adding CO2, those chemicals are almost useless. CaCo3 and MgCo3 do not dissolve in water, certainly not sea water unless the pH is low, around 6 if i remember correctly. Also adding chemicals of an unknown grade is dangerous as the level of contaminants is unknown.
 
'hyper' or 'hypo' chloride? what form is this stuff in? if it is a powder, dissolve some in freshwater then do ammonia/nitrate/phosphate tests to see if there is any kaka in there, check that everything dissolves though. electrolysis is a very expensive nbut effective process so I trust they should be fairly pure.
 
I'll have to check the details of the process on monday and get back to you. Its done to treat water for a dolphinarium, mainly for algal control.

Thanks for the input.
 
I agree with midasblenny, u need to know its grade, due to the smaller volume of water it needs to be the best. Also remember don't add anything u not testing for
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Forgedaboudit !!

:wave2:Hi there

The guys are correct, don't add if is not readily or normally soluble in NSW chemistry, or else, WHY add ?

About the source and what they do at the plant...Seems there's a few things to consider, and then decide..

Firstly "carbonates" aren't the only precipitates from seawater ...bicarbonates, borates, chlorides, sulphates, etc...

Anode-Cathode, Electrlyte(in this case NSW), and source of electrical current

It's not much more different than employing a SALTWATER swimming pool chlorinator, you know the kind I'm talking about...more controlled maybe, but same reaction scheme nonetheless

It would be a "bleaching", oxidising reaction on organic matter..in this case "algal material" for the dolphinarium

So we're talking about ....

Mineral accretion(deposits) on Cathode, mostly Ca, Mg salts
Acidic species from Anode, with mostly disnfectant and bleach functions...
So it would be hypochlorite, then some chlorate(pH dependent) and eventually chloride

So, to re-iterate..it's not worth it, impractical, and unreliable for supplementation

Does this help you?
Hope I didn't further complicate things...:p
 
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would the by-product, the mineral deposit on the cathode side of the reaction not be useful at all?
 
That's correct Ash....
Of no use to your project as you intended...

But.....It would alkalise and mineralise soft acidic freshwater to increase GH and KH (with unknown contaminant,impurity and organic content)

HTH
 
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