Having a bit of trouble believing something

[chkltcow]

From a discussion about aquariums on the Subaru board I'm on.

Skip the aragonite!! It will eventually lead to the formation of ammonium (undetectable by all current hobby test kits) which will start to cause mysterious "die-offs". Just put about 1" of "live sand" on the bottom and dose with kalkwasser or a two-part calcium/ionic buffer solution to keep alk/calcium levels up.

Ummm.... live sand IS aragonite. Aragonite is just calcium based sand.

What you talkin' bout, Willis?

Yes, part of live sand is aragonite but it's at a much finer consistency than the porous, pebble-sized aragonite(typically sold in LFS) that tends to absorb organic compounds over time.
I've been through the process with aragonite on the bottom(and ammonium die-off). It's frustrating as hell. Just trying to spare someone else the headache.

Anybody want to tell me what the heck this guy is talking about?

 

[ecto1]

Live sand is aragonite, it's just "alive" with bacteria and whatnot.

 

[Navarre]

Interesting theoriy.

I have not heard this before but i must admit that i have large grain aragonite and i have had 2 mysterious deaths in the last 3 days.. my achilles suddenly went down hill and died very quickly.. and my blueface angel is now gasping for breath and probably wont last the night

I have done a water test and my readings are

PH 8.4 (a bit higher than it usually is which is 8.3)
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 2.0
Phosphate 0.25

Perhaps there is weight behind his theory

Personally though i have never heard of this, what he says is possible i guess, larger grain size could contain other particles i guess.

Maybe other here can come forward with any findings they might have.

 

[chkltcow]

How large is "large grain"?

 

[maestro]

My tropic marin test kit says it tests for ammonia/ammonium anyway?

edit - reading through my test kit it says that in a alkaline enviroment there is more ammonia ions than ammonium ions, so if your ammonia is showing at zero than I assume your ammonium must be zero aswell?

 

[chkltcow]

As I understand it, Ammonium is simply Ammonia that has grabbed a ion from a water molecule. It is NH4+ instead of NH3

 

[steelhealr]

There are so many combinations of possibilities that I don't think that the original claim above can be supported. Here are some of the possibilities for 'sudden death' I've read about in the last few weeks:

1) heavy metals...R. Shimek compared Coral Life Sea Salt with Instant Ocean and Marine BioAssay using sea urchin embryos....there was large dieoff of the embryos with IO and CL, based on excessive heavy metals in both those salts

2) unknown toxins given off by corals as a territorial defense

3) and BTW..isn't ammonium the safer compound compared to ammonia? Maestro hit it dead on. Besides..that makes no sense whatsoever. NH3 which is toxic, picks up a hydrogen ion to become ammonium, NH4+ in ACIDIC CONDITIONS. A pH of 8.2 will keep the ammonium ion in ammonia form by dragging that hydrogen ion off. Remember ...the dangers in a FW system without water changes? Detritus breaks down, forms ammonia. As the system becomes more acidic without maintenance, the ammonia becomes ammonium and actually protects the FW fish. When you try to rapidly over correct the falling pH with water changes which are more alkaline, the ammonium is converted to ammonia and you have livestock loss.

DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ ON THE INTERNET!! DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH! SH

 

[chkltcow]

Oh I have done research, SH..... I just think that guy is full of crap, and I'm asking others if they will assure me he's full of crap