Crushed shell in calcium reactor?

[Joekovar]

I'm in Florida and crushed Florida shell is $6 for about 3.5 gallons. I can literally get this stuff by the truck load for next to nothing from at least half a dozen places near me.

What's the major differences between crushed Florida shell people typically use for landscaping, and stuff branded as calcium reactor media?

 

[vetteguy53081]

The calcium in a reactor is actually coral stone and not shell

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

It would probably work. Even crushed limestone works. Surface area may be lower than coral skeletons, and may be harder to dissolve.

 

[Joekovar]

I wondered about how smooth the interior of clam and similar shells are. I'm curious if there's more magnesium or other trace elements in the shells vs the coral skeletons, I'll have to look more at what the shelled creatures require to thrive.

I know there's already a little bit of coral skeleton mixed in the shell, but not much.

Maybe there's a sweet spot for how crushed the shell is for it to be comparable to only coral skeletons.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Sea shells are generally either aragonite or calcite or a mixture of the two. Calcite contains more magnesium than does aragonite.

 

[Reefahholic]

We are hurting for quality coral bones on this side of the world.

Several of us in Houston were gonna import a sample, run ICP, and have several tons brought over, but ran into CITES issues which we are dealing with now.

 

[Chrisv.]

I could be totally mis-remembering, but I could have sworn that shells incorporate more phosphate than coral when they biofix calcium.

There was a REALLY good BRS investigates YouTube video about phosphate in calcium reactor media that is probably a "must watch" if you own a calcium reactor and haven't seen it.

 

[Joekovar]

I wonder if it would be cost effective to pulverize the shell and treat it with lanthanum chloride to bind and remove phosphates, then press the remaining slurry into pellets for reactors. Perhaps the reacted phosphates could be used by the agricultural industry in some way so the process doesn't produce something like the phosphogypsum stacks that plague Tampa Bay.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I wonder if it would be cost effective to pulverize the shell and treat it with lanthanum chloride to bind and remove phosphates, then press the remaining slurry into pellets for reactors. Perhaps the reacted phosphates could be used by the agricultural industry in some way so the process doesn't produce something like the phosphogypsum stacks that plague Tampa Bay.

I don't think that will be useful. That process will only remove phosphate bound to the solid surfaces. Anything buried in the solids will remain until it is dissolved in the reactor.