"Charles" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 18 Jan 2006 19:36:05 GMT, Elaine T
wrote:

NetMax wrote:
"David C. Stone" wrote in message
...

In article om,
rootep wrote:


Hi, everyone, do you know that tourmaline sand is good for fishes?


[drivelectomy]

What a bunch of pseudo-scientific baloney...


It is a complex mineral with piezo-electric qualities
http://www.desertusa.com/mag98/may/p...ourmaline.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourmaline
..but as for everything else, baloney (imo2) until someone comes up
with
some credible scientific test results.

The last wonder-substrate for fish was montmorillonite clay, an
Asian's
Koi breeders secret which got out.

If tourmaline adsorbs charged compounds under normal fishtank
conditions, it could be an attractive and useful planted tank
substrate.
Pity the link for the price is broken, although the site looks like
an
exporter rather than retail anyway.


The link worked for me, you might want to try it again. I don't
believe anything they say, but that's just me.

they have an equaly strange post in the sci.chem group.

After reading this, I woke up in the night, wondering what the
peizoelectric effect of walking on quartz sand would be. I couldn't
think of any, so I went back to sleep.

After reading that, I spilt my coffee and went about cleaning my keyboard
(your posts often have that effect). While distracted by the coffee
spill, I envisioned clothes which used a wire weave with LEDs stitched
into a plaid pattern, that would glow in various colors as you walked
down the tourmaline beach. The image passed when I finished mopping up
the coffee.
--
www.NetMax.tk