Substrate grade aragonite as Ca Rx media?

[epidemic]

I know this has been asked before, but I just wanted to bring it up again. Is it ok to use aragonite sand as calcium reactor media?

[David Grigor]

Carib-sea

Geomarine and Seaflor grades ( just not the real fine stuff or the fancy pink stuff ) are fine to use. I probably would shy away from using used crush coral from an existing system though. I would only use the premium CA rx stuff if you find you have algae issues that are phosphate related and have exhausted all other phosphate contributors such as foods etc. For a healthy mature system the amount of phosphates from the reactor media should have a negligable effect on your tank but can't be ruled out completely if you develop issues.

I used the Geomarine from 1996-2004 and tried the gold and the arm and could never justify the added expense.

[JnS]

would calcium carbonate work?

[epidemic]

would calcium carbonate work?

thats what aragonite is. Do you mean like reagent CaCO3?

[JnS]

thats what aragonite is. Do you mean like reagent CaCO3?

no they feed chickens that stuff to digest there food. mills fleet farm has it in 50 pound bags for $5

[epidemic]

well then... I may have to look into that.

[David Grigor]

Will Calcium Carbonate provide the ALK source the same as aragonite ? That would be my concern and don't know the answer.

[epidemic]

Yeas it would. Aragonite is calcium carbonate,
CaCO3<--> Ca (calcium) + CO3 (carbonate).

Personally I would be more concerned about it having phosphates and not having other elements the aragonite would. (I heard it has Mg too, but I may be wrong0

[sea monkey]

calcium carbonate from the sea is from calcium and carbonate precipitating out and forming sand. It also has other ions found in the sea like magnesium but is rather pure.

hard to know what the calcium carbonate that is mined out of the ground (lime) also contains. im sure the equipment and conditions in which it is mined are not that clean either. I don't think id be the first one to try it anyways : )

people have been recently talked about using this as sand , id try that before id melt it and release everything in it into my tank.

[epidemic]

Good point