Is Dental stone reef safe?

[Dylan McKenzie Holloway]

So I'm in Dental school and have had this idea of using the stone that we use to make dental casts like pictured below for frag plugs and such.

Dental stone is predominantly made of gypsum. Gypsum is made of calcium sulfate Dihydrate other wise known as plaster of paris chemical formula of CaSO4 2H2O. However they add some retarders and accelerators.

I looked up the MSDS for one of the stones we use and all the other stones have basically the same components, 3 types of the stone have the same five compounds, but 2 other types are just made up of two different things. (see pictures below) Anyone with more experience with reefing chemistry is welcome to chime in to tell me what their opinion is on having these types of things in a tank for any amount of time.

This is MSDS for Microstone (just giving the name for easy of further communication)

This is the MSDS for Jade stone

If anyone has any input on the reef safe-ness? of these compounds please chime in!

Thanks, Dylan

 

[Ding2daDong]

I have no idea but I'm a dentist and find this post pretty interesting. The only issue is dental stone isn't necessarily cheaper than just buying pre-made frag plugs. What dental school are you in. Go Gators!

 

[Dylan McKenzie Holloway]

Boooo, I'm at the Dental College of Georgia. Got a friend in school down in Florida, but I think hes at LECOM! Also I have no idea how much the stuff cost because I just get it from the school lab when I need it. I would think that I could make a decent amount of frag disk/tiles with a few bags. A three inch frag disk is about $3 around me.

Also one thing on my mind was using it to make rock structures, or even little things for coral to grow on.

 

[Ding2daDong]

Boooo, I'm at the Dental College of Georgia. Got a friend in school down in Florida, but I think hes at LECOM! Also I have no idea how much the stuff cost because I just get it from the school lab when I need it. I would think that I could make a decent amount of frag disk/tiles with a few bags. A three inch frag disk is about $3 around me.

Also one thing on my mind was using it to make rock structures, or even little things for coral to grow on.

haha! You go to the school that has changed its name numerous times over the past few years. We had some residents in our different specialty programs from your school and we would always mess with them about the name changing. I would ask @Randy Holmes-Farley and see if he could give us some insight.

 

[WvAquatics]

I would say probably not reef safe. If it leaches any of it's chemical makeup. You will release ammonia into the tank. Cycled it might not hurt as your bacteria will consume the ammonia. Next boric acid I do believe is a chemical that will lower your pH so working against your buffers like rock and sand. Lastly you will slowly release silica that will cause algea growth in the tank much like silica does in a saltwater aquarium.