Randy as we have been talking about sand rinses in other threads I had posed the idea that during production, shipping, grain grinding etc the wet pack bagged sands present with a super mega high surface area silt factor (flocculants often included in the bag to remedy) that should be pre rinsed out instead of sinked. literally removed, leaving only heavier sand grains...not floc'd to the bottom.
considering your mention of surface area and dissolution I kept thinking the powder vs the grain sure sounds more presentable silicate to the system, and early invaders who feast on that. Blast rinsing 100% of the dusty silt out of my tank always seemed to factor with zero diatom stages. My theory was that since 99% of reef tank builders feel that rinsing live sand will destroy its bac complement we universally start out tanks with a high fraction of silt and the tank invaders that often show up could have been lessened by starting differently, whats your take on Si being more readily available to the system by not pre-rinsing?
