New tank: relationship between silicates and phosphates

[Letterkenny]

I very well could have just dreamt this up but I thought I saw somewhere that there is a relationship between silicates and phosphates whereby silicates will bind with phosphates? Essentially, I’m curious if the silicates introduced with the live sand in a new tank would cause erroneous readings on phosphate test kits (causing artificially too low readings compared to actuality). The results are that you would get erroneous phosphate readings while diatoms consumed the silicates. @Randy Holmes-Farley please let me know if I am off my rocker or if this is indeed true.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

They do not interact directly and do not cause erroneous readings.

They are both taken up by diatoms.

They can both compete for certain binders such as GFO.