Which Substrate Is Whiter?

"From a more seriously scientific point of view, diatoms are even more fascinating. They abound in almost any body of water worldwide. That makes them major primary producers, meaning that they drive the Earth’s food web and are a rich source of the oxygen we breathe. Secondly, diatoms are incredibly diverse, with estimates of the number of species running from 30,000 to 100,000 and more. Thirdly, diatom studies make it possible to demonstrate environmental changes spanning tens of thousands of years. And finally, diatoms build their external skeleton (the valve) by catching silicate from the water and depositing it with amazing precision in specific patterns. In fact, they run a super-secret ceramics process, which - if we could duplicate it - would open up fantastic vistas of nano-engineering: manufacturing complicated nanostructures out of silicate, an ultrapure, inert and refractory material."
 
To this day whether Silicates adds to diatom's has been a controversial topic. You are either one side or the other, with a few on the fence. As i said think about it. Ive also never seen anybody research Calcium instead of Silicates on this Forum adding to Diatomes. We all know it adds to Coral Skeleton growth, why not Diatomes? its a living organism. And if u Google a bit ule find a few feel the same way I do.
 
Storm said:
You people seem to forget, Beach Sand contains Crushed Shells. You might not even see it but those tiny white dots mixed with the brown dots add calcium which cause Diatomes to form. But in a sence it can kinda be good for corals since the Calcium will add to creating Coral Skeletons. And Tridant the Humbugs are fine. I eventually inherited 2 because he bought to many...
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Good to hear they all fine, i did ask him if he was sure he wanted them all before he bought them....

My thoughts on what causes/fuels diatoms, silicates is rocket fuel for them as far as i am concerned, but do not believe its the sole source or compound that will lead to a outbreak in any system.
 
The concentrations of calcium and silica are disproportional in seawater. Aragonite is far superior in all ways to any crushed shells. Crushed shells release minuscule amounts of calcium under normal operating aquarium conditions, and do not buffer the water at marine ph. Crushed Shells and true Aragonite are incomparable.
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I don't get why people keep posting about Aragonite. I asked about Sea Sand and Play Sand. I dont see Aragnorite anywhere in the equation here, i must have missed something :p. And Tridan he has the space for them all, he just doesn't have ANYMORE space. Now that he realized it im stuck with 2 ;/
 
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For what it's worth, I've got play sand in the DT, Umhloti beach sand in my fuge and a mixture of the two in my DSB . . . and the DT wins hands down for whiteness. But it's like a white car in a way, it shows the dirt right away so is a higher burden for cleaning. But worth it.
 
Definitely playsand is much, much whiter after it has been washed, I have some photo's somewhere if you want me to post them.
 
LOL - you know you love this hobby when you end up arguing over sand and diatoms :lol:
 
viper357 said:
Definitely playsand is much, much whiter after it has been washed, I have some photo's somewhere if you want me to post them.
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Unless you guys get different playsand to me i'm confused. The aragonite I got is white as you get and the playsand I have has a slight brown tinge (This is still after I washed it for what seemed like years, that stuff is really dirty when you first buy it). If we going according to price though aragonite is stupid and really not worth it...
 
Manic said:
Unless you guys get different playsand to me i'm confused. The aragonite I got is white as you get and the playsand I have has a slight brown tinge (This is still after I washed it for what seemed like years, that stuff is really dirty when you first buy it). If we going according to price though aragonite is stupid and really not worth it...
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Well if play sand is not white enough and aragonite is to expensive then what do you want to use?...
 
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