Can someone help me understand percipitation?

[jgoal55]

I just read this:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-04/rhf/feature/index.php">http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-04/rhf/feature/index.php</a>


very good article and very informative about the relationship between calcium and alk......but I still don't understand the percipitation part? How do you know it's happening?

I am so mad I missed the meeting where all this stuff was discussed.....then again I failed chemistry for a reason so I may not have understood anyway....I had to read the article twice.

 

[FutureInterest]

It's like the legal standard for obscenity... you'll know it when you see it. Actually, its much easier than that... you'll know its happening when your tank starts to look like a snowglobe.

 

[xyzpdq0121]

You want to know what it looks like? I got one simple way to show you, take one cup tank water into a measuring cup. add a teaspoon of buffer to it and sit and watch. Better yet, take some RO water and disolve some calcium additive in it, then when it is clear again, add your teaspoon of alk. It you look real closely, you can see santa and his raindeer making a snow man.

 

[justonemoretank]

LOL... both of the above posts are on the money. Precipitation is just basically materials that were dissolved and invisible to the naked eye finding each other and binding together. When they bond together they form a solid that precipitates (or "falls out of solution") into a mass. This will look like snow or white powder blowing around and will eventually settle on everything in your tank. You made some expensive chalk!

 

[glxtrix]

yup pull it out and write on a blackboard.

 

[jgoal55]

ok, so I dont think I have had it happen yet or ever so far, but other than being unpleasant to watch (albeit I do confess that I think a snowglobe with fish inside would be kind of funny), is it bad or dangerous to the tank?

 

[xyzpdq0121]

Ya pretty bad.... It covers corals and can act like Joe's Juice to them. It is a BIG mess to clean up. It causes a huge swing in alk and/or calcium levels. Lets just put it this way, I would avoid it if you can!