ADA's Power Sand

[imported_bpt]

Why don't you send a few lorry-loads over?

Just a few lorry ? :P Take a look at this picture , a quarry full of pumice rock from Lombok Island. Too bad that I'm closer to Singapore than to this place.

[zmzfam]

KL,

what happened to the original splitters?

[timebomb]

Zul,

You mean my old one which consists of a long bar with several holes in it? That was my DIY CO2 splitter but I threw it away recently. Several years ago, when I wanted to feed CO2 to many fish tanks from a single CO2 cylinder, there wasn't any equipment in the market that was able to do this. My DIY splitter was made up from various valves, nuts and bolts from the hardware shops around Kelantan Lane. It worked well on most days but occasionally, it went crazy. Sometimes I would come home from work to find one tank where the CO2 was bubbling like crazy and the others without CO2 at all. The so-called fine-tuning valves on my DIY splitter were anything but fine-tuning. A little turn in any direction would either mean the CO2 gets cut off completely or it comes out in a gush.

Now, my new splitter works like a charm. The fine-tuning valves are of the highest quality. Bubbling rates can be easily tuned to any desired rate. Best of all, it isn't expensive. Also, it's easy to rig up and you don't have to be a DIY expert to figure out how to join all the parts together. I used a bit of superglue around the joints to prevent leakages.

Wright was right when he said we shouldn't use teflon tape to wind around the joints when we screw such equipment together. Telfon is good only for equipment that involves water. With equipment involving high-pressure gas, it's best to use superglue or silicon.

Loh K L

[PeterGwee]

Any new updates on your tank revamp with ADA substrates? How about some pictures KL?

Regards
Peter Gwee

[timebomb]

I'm afraid I have no pics to show you, Peter. I'm having second thoughts about the whole thing. A very kind fish shop owner offered to sell me the ADA aquasoil at cost but it's still an exorbitant amount of money to pay for soil. It's kind of sinful to spend money this way, if you know what I mean.

I'm in 2 minds what I should do with my main tank. My wife said maybe I should stick with the original substrate and just rescape the tank. I might do just that but in the meantime, I'm too lazy to start work on it.

I don't know about you but I've been in this hobby since I was a kid. It's been 40 over years and I know my interest has its valleys and peaks. I don't know why but I'm in a "valley" now. I look at the tank and I don't feel like doing anything at all.

Loh K L

[itssg]

Hi Loh,

Would you mind to let me know where and what is the price you bought the CO2 splitter? I am looking for it since long time ago....

Thanks
dom

[timebomb]

Dom,

I bought the splitters from Nature Aquarium at Balestier Shopping Complex. My memory is not what it used to be so I can't remember the prices clearly. But I think it's Sing $30 for a 2-way splitter and either Sing $40 or $45 for a 3 way one. You will need two 3-way splitters to make one 5-way splitter.

Loh K L

[itssg]

Hi Loh,

That is a good price. I can't really find this kind of splitter in Kuala Lumpur. Sound like i have to make a trip to Singapore soon.

Cheers,
dom

[Martian]

Dom,

88 Marine was supposed to bring in the 3 way splitters for Rm80...i havent check with them whether the stock is here or not. You might want to give them a call to check. If you are getting from Singapore, can you get me one as well?

Thanks.

Rgds,
isaac

[itssg]

Isaac, we are going to out of topic. check you pm.

[stormhawk]

Hi Dominic, you could get these shipped to you via airmail if someone here was willing to help you with it. Saves you the trouble of heading all the way south.

[itssg]

Hi Jiang Yang... Do you mind to help me out? I am just worry about the payment kinda troublesome.

[stormhawk]

Hmm.. depending on the weight of the items the postage might be higher. There's options of airmail and courier with a big price difference. Email me and we'll see if we can work it out. Payment wise there's always Western Union.

[whuntley]

Back to Power Sand.

I had a nice bale of Canada sphagnum peat moss, but needed the pumice sand for a DIY substrate, imitating Power Sand. My plan (unless someone knows otherwise) is to mix about 10% peat with 90% pumice to get a starting substrate. I'll probably cover it with coarse gravel from the Jade Beach area. [It is beautiful stuff, a lot like the Lapis Lustre, but bigger pieces of all rounded white, red, black and dark green pebbles from about 1/8" to 1/2".]

I went to an old abandoned Pumice Mill about 8 miles north of town and found a mountain of fairly fine pumice sand, apparently stuff that had been ground and was ready for filling bags. I filled a couple of plastic tubs, and guess I have about 70-80 Kg of the stuff. Should be enough for my 4' tank (55G) with some to spare for other plant tanks. Don't knock it! The price was right (even at today's gas prices).

I took a picture of the 4WD pickup I used to get to the mill. The white wall behind it was a solid mountain of pumice sand of the sort they used to put in the bags I found there. Digging was really easy. I just used a plastic pitcher to fill the bigger containers. One of the tubs can be seen on the lowered tailgate of the pickup.

Go to my gallery http://www.killies.com/forum/modules...view_album.php
to see the pics of the site and the bag details I found interesting.

Wright

[stormhawk]

Wright, saw the pics and I found the last line on the bag a little interesting:

Does not play host to insects.

[whuntley]

Probably pretty hostile to small Cories, too.

It is almost pure silica (like foamed glass) and really abrasive.

Wright

[timebomb]

Wright,

ADA's Power Sand does not come in powder form. They are about the size of small peanuts. Small pockets of air get trapped below the substrate when the pumice is of a fairly large size and irregularly shaped. With powdered pumice, this won't happen.

Loh K L

[whuntley]

This stuff isn't really powdered. it has a range of sizes, but probably a bit more fines than typical coarse aquarium gravel, like Lapis Lustre. I'm pretty sure it has plenty of porosity, as the bag advertising indicates. It was being processed as a soil amendment. In the case of the bags I found, it was aimed at golf-course maintenance. [Surely fishkeeping in planted tanks cannot be a dumber sport than getting furious while trying to knock a little ball into a gopher hole from a long distance. ]

This same source of pumice was once used to make light-weight concrete blocks for building. It even floats in water if the chunks are too big. As kids, we used to like to amaze the tourists by tossing a big rock in the river and watching it float away.

The trapped air in Power Sand would make it float, too. I think one must get rid of most of it for it to have the binding, high CEC and other properties desired in a substrate. It is the surface area for ion exchange that is important, I suspect. For that, the air must be displaced by water, eventually.

Wright

[RonWill]

It is the surface area for ion exchange that is important, I suspect. For that, the air must be displaced by water, eventually

Wright, the pumice granules will attempt to float even if it's weighed down with coarser gravel. Perhaps a 'soak-in' period is needed, ie. water level just above the topmost layer of gravel, before you fully top-up the water? I dread to think about rescapeing (sp?) though, reminding me of the times I tried vermiculite/perlite mix + peat & gravel combo. Damned bits were all over the place at the slightest uprooting of plants.

The mentioned substrate combo looks interesting and if not for the fact that I need to reduce my tanks, I'd be fair game to try too.

Good luck to you and whoever else is attempting it. Looking forward to updates just the same.

Side note: Question opened to anyone 'in the know'.
Has Ms Diana Walstadt tried the aforementioned (peat/pumice/gravel) combination? If so, was her feedback/results favorable?

[whuntley]

Peat will float for weeks because of trapped air. Historically, I have heated it to boiling, in water. That expands the air a lot, so water then gets sucked back into the pores as it cools.

Rinsing in cold tap water also uses up most of the ion exchange sites (Ca replaces Na), so it is less chemically active. That doesn't seem to hurt its antibacterial properties at all.

If the pumice refuses to stay sunk, I'll use a similar treatment to get it saturated with water. My past experience is that it is so porous that small pebbles of it don't float very well, as the water quickly penetrates deeply enough to push the SG above 1. Only pieces the size of golf balls or bigger can be counted on to float for any length of time, as I recall. I'll test before setting it up, of course.

Vermiculite, OTOH, can be very tough to sink. It is a sheet-like mica material (mostly aluminum silicate) as opposed to the amorphous, expanded silica (silicon dioxide) of pumice. Even when hydrated, the sheet-like flakes want to stay in the water column forever, it seems. If you want the effect but without the "snowflakes" I suggest using Jersey Greensand (glauconite). It is dark green, sinks, and has lots of iron and potassium as well as a high CEC.

Wright