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Just goes to show you..

mynd

mynd

Hello there,

Well, my first problem with the new tank. I ordered my rock from Pacific East. I was happier then hell when it came in. However, now I have a problem. I decided after seeing a little diatom starting that I would go to the store and get a silicate test. Well, came home and tested my water.. Now I went to great lengths not to have silicates. Distilled water, *checked no silicates - ViaAqua Salt - *checked no silicates - 100% aragonite sand in salt water at the proper temperature *checked no silicates. I checked it all twice. Guess where I am getting my silicates from???? You say the ROCK.. Guess what.. you are 100% correct. Now I would not be PO'd if my reading of silicates was on the chart. However, the last color on the chart is GREEN and guess what my color is FREAKING DARK BLUE!!!!!

I cannot believe this crap.. I am very pissed off and I hope PACIFIC EAST can READ THIS cause out of everything that could be wrong this is the ONE FREAKING THING that I did NOT WANT TO DEAL WITH.

Now some of you might say.. just do water changes until the silicates go away. I know it might be that easy, but you have no idea how much I hate silicates and the past problems I have had with them, so without going into that understand I would rather lose a finger then have silicates.

Very Upset and Very angry at the moment with Pacific East for selling me what seems to be Silicate ROCK.

This is very disturbing...
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
What kind of rock would be leaching silicates? Is this something that will likely "burn off" or do you think it will continue to leach out of the rocks beyond normal "burn off" period?

I can understand your frustration. To go to such great lengths only to be faced with them anyway must be beyond frustrating.
 
mynd

mynd

I have set up a test environment which is now this:

1 batch of distilled water and salt
1 batch of distilled water, salt and sand ( aragonite )
1 batch of distilled water, salt, sand and rock

They are all at 77.8 ish degrees and being circulated by pumps. I am going to check and see which one has silicates in the morning. Before I go stark raving lunatic I want to be sure I am not wrong and if I am I will apologize on here to Pacific East personally.

I will be back in 13 hours.
 
M

mladencovic

mynd said:
I have set up a test environment which is now this:

1 batch of distilled water and salt
1 batch of distilled water, salt and sand ( aragonite )
1 batch of distilled water, salt, sand and rock

They are all at 77.8 ish degrees and being circulated by pumps. I am going to check and see which one has silicates in the morning. Before I go stark raving lunatic I want to be sure I am not wrong and if I am I will apologize on here to Pacific East personally.

I will be back in 13 hours.
Click to expand...

You might also want to try another test, something that Phyllis tried to ask you - take a "core" sample of your rock and test it along other samples. That will tell you if the rock is merely coated in silicates, in which case generous scrubbing, and extended curing will reduce them from the surface, or if the rock is mineralogically rich in silicates, in which case there is nothing you can do about it.
 
mynd

mynd

I actually did exactly what Phyl suggested and then some ( thanks phyl ) It seems at this point that the dead or dying sponges on the rocks actually have silicate spicules and I have a lot of them on this rock. This is leeching into the water. It is not the water, not the salt and not the sand even though I tested the sand two ways, which included sand not being rinsed and rinsed. The allowed for me to see if it was the sand dust that had silicates in it as well.

End Result is that the rock contains my problem and YES over time it will go away. As stated in another post I am just glad that the temperature of the tank is constant, otherwise I feel this would fuel the diatom bloom out of control. I am very glad I decided on a chiller for the tank. I also attribute the slower growth by slowly bringing my lighting schedule online. I can only hope that this goes away in time sooner then later.
 
blange3

blange3

mynd said:
End Result is that the rock contains my problem and YES over time it will go away.
Click to expand...

In deference to the rock vendor, this is no different than the ammonia that results from incompletely cycled rock.

For those who may have gotten the impression that this was Pacific East's fault from the earlier posts, I think it's fair to point out that dying sponges are something that needs to be addressed whenever we cycle rock. And sponges are the major consumer of silica on the reef.

If you are really intent on not introducing silica to a reef tank, always cycle new rock outside of the display tank.

Hang in the Mynd, diatom blooms are survivable if they happen! ;D
 
mynd

mynd

I completely agree. The vendor Pacific East provided me with beautiful rock and unfortunately it just happen to have some things on it that are giving me issues. I mean what did I expect to get away scott free? heh.. I do thank Pacific East for the beautiful rock they provided me. However, in the future I will be curing even the cured rock in its own tank for at least a month before doing anything with it in the main tank.
 
blange3

blange3

mynd said:
However, in the future I will be curing even the cured rock in its own tank for at least a month before doing anything with it in the main tank.
Click to expand...

I'm with you on this one! Good live rock always has something alive on it. And when it hits the air for handling and shipping, that stuff is going to start dying off.

You've mentioned the rock was nice, got any pictures??
 
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