specific gravity questions from a freshy

[SnakeIce]

I figgured that you guyes would know more about this subj so here it is: when you increase the SG of water you disolve the sea salt or whatever you use. so that covers disolving things to increase the SG.
Now would the specific Gravity also increase if you suspended fine particle in the water say silt, or in my tap water lots of silicates as the source water has around here.

would there be a specific gravity diference between say the high silicate water straight out of the tap and that water filtered by say a coffee filter, assuming that the filter would remove most of the turbidity

[OrionGirl]

There should be a difference, and the water with high silicates should have the higher silica reading, I think. If I understand it correctly, if the silica were combined into one lump instead of being many small bits, it would definitely have a higher sg than water. So, the dissolved silica would collectively increase the sg when comparing the same volumes.

I don't know that the hobbyist grades are sensitive enough to detect a slight difference though--it's possible that the difference between the 2 samples will be to small to overcome the inherent error level of the hydrometer.

[SnakeIce]

I just asked my chemist friend here and I have the answer to where I was going with this.
silicates are a disolved ion that often linkes in the water in long strings or sheets
In his words understanding the chemistry of silicates is a nightmare so I am not going to try to explain more

and yes even scientific measures that take into account the temperature and other things would not measure much difference if any of the suspended particle idea

and the actual problem I was/am haveing? the city water system raised the clorine levels so some was getting into the tank
grasping a straws, what can I say:rolleyes:

[Mandairn]

the most in portain part of sg is not where it is (though does play a part) but, that your keep it at the same lvl form day to day with out any change or spikes.

[Ray Pollett]

SnakeIce,

Yea, they seem to be doing that all over Washington state right now. I've not seen it cause a problem in any of my tanks yet. I use straight tap water and salt mix in all of them; but one.