# [Wet Thumb Forum]-Calcium carbonate



## Stevenl (Mar 31, 2004)

I bought 500g of calcium carbonate at my local wine brewing store. On the plastic bag it says "Chalk (for wine making)....contents: calcium carbonate".

I am wondering if chalk only contains calcium carbonate? The store owner said he would find out the answer from the supplier but I haven't yet got an answer.

Does anyone know the answer?

thanks










66G tank with 2.7 wpg shoplights, DIY Co2 and 50/50 flourite substrate


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## Stevenl (Mar 31, 2004)

I bought 500g of calcium carbonate at my local wine brewing store. On the plastic bag it says "Chalk (for wine making)....contents: calcium carbonate".

I am wondering if chalk only contains calcium carbonate? The store owner said he would find out the answer from the supplier but I haven't yet got an answer.

Does anyone know the answer?

thanks










66G tank with 2.7 wpg shoplights, DIY Co2 and 50/50 flourite substrate


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## Rex Grigg (Jan 22, 2004)

High grade chalk is pure Calcium carbonate. Now if it's red or green or blue.......

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American by birth, Marine by the grace of God! This post spell checked with IESpell available at http://www.iespell.com

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## catfish (Apr 17, 2003)

Chalk is a sedimentary rock made up of tiny little sea critters called diatoms. So chalk/oyster shell/coral/eggshell is all the same stuff.









BTW, in the fish research lab here, I found out recently they use a multimineral vitamin tablet ground up for calcium and other minerals. Just use the 'natural' vitamins without preservatives. The binders are harmless. I just started doing this to save my snails who are having shell trouble.


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## Roger Miller (Jun 19, 2004)

Traditional chalk is fairly pure calcium carbonate. The wine making product is probably pure calcium carbonate.

Don't go to the store and buy blackboard chalk expecting to get a good source of calcium carbonate. Paul Sears once told me that blackboard chalk is no longer "chalk". You can always test it with muriatic acid to make sure.


Roger Miller


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## gsmollin (Feb 3, 2003)

Chalk, mineral of calcium carbonate, similar in composition to limestone, but softer. It is characteristically a marine formation and sometimes occurs in great thickness; the chief constituents of these chalk deposits are the shells of minute animals called foraminiferans. Chalk has been laid down in all periods of geologic time, but most of the best-known deposits, e.g., the cliffs of the English Channel, date from the Cretaceous period. Chalk is used in the manufacture of putty, plaster, cement, quicklime, mortar, and rubber goods and also for blackboard chalk. Harder forms are used as building stones.

ref: www.infoplease.com

Diatoms are unicellular algae generally placed in the family Bacillariophyceae. The cell walls of these organisms are made of silica, and the varied shapes and beautiful ornamentation of these walls made the study of the diatoms and related siliceous organisms a favored pursuit of the microscopical pioneers. The cell wall is also one of the major reasons why these algae are today a favorite tool of modern ecological and evolutionary researchers, because the fossils are often well preserved in lake and marine systems.

ref: http://www.indiana.edu/~diatom/diatom.html


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## Stevenl (Mar 31, 2004)

The poweder is white though...hopefully it will be ok.

Still no reply from the store..


















66G tank with 2.7 wpg shoplights, DIY Co2 and 50/50 flourite substrate


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## catfish (Apr 17, 2003)

> quote:
> 
> It is characteristically a marine formation and sometimes occurs in great thickness; the chief constituents of these chalk deposits are the shells of minute animals called foraminiferans.


DOH! Mixed my fossils up. *blush*


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## wetmanNY (Feb 1, 2003)

http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:QKjcRos-cyYC:www.personal.psu.edu/jdc6/El_Capitan.jpgEl Capitan in Yosemite, laid down as part of the Devonian Reef system, greater than the Great Barrier Reef of today. For _amazing_ feats of calcium carbonate construction, www.google.com "Devonian reef" and "tabulate coral"


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## Roger Miller (Jun 19, 2004)

Hmm. El Capitan in Yosemite is actually granite.

Perhaps you are thinking of El Capitan in Guadalupe National Park, Texas. The rock in the peak was formed during the Permian Period (Guadalupian epoch, I think). It is part of the massive Capitan Reef that arcs across large parts of west Texas and southeastern New Mexico.

Corals were part of the Capitan Reef, but they were not the major reef builders. Reef-building corals similar to those that live today did not appear until a few hundred million years later. The Capitan Reef was built mostly by sponges.


Roger Miller


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## wetmanNY (Feb 1, 2003)

Cripes! you're right! I was just swept up by the photo I was able to find! Wrong Capitan. To make up, here's a page on calcium carbonate reefbuilders through time: http://www.brookes.ac.uk/geology/8313/reeflect3.html


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