# 'Magic Coral', Sodium Silicate Questions

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magic-coral-sodium-silicate-questions/832901>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 22, 2019, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magic-coral-sodium-silicate-questions/832901 "2019-04-22T18:44:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2019, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magic-coral-sodium-silicate-questions/832901/1 "2019-04-22T18:44:18Z")

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I bought a ‘grow magic coral’ kit. It says in the instructions that the special solution is sodium silicate. It does not say what the starter ‘magic rocks’ are. The directions are for growing the ‘coral’ on an included plastic tree thing. I want to know if instead of doing that, I can get the coral to grow on a ceramic Cthulhu statuette I made. The idol in question is fired, unpainted, unglazed clay. I also want to know how hard it will be to get the ‘coral’ of the idol if I don’t like the way it turns out. I also wonder why so much of my life seems to revolve around Cthulhu. But that’s for another thread.

Oh, I already know not to ingest the sodium silicate, and to avoid contact with skin.

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**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2019, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magic-coral-sodium-silicate-questions/832901/2 "2019-04-22T19:37:07Z")

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The colored rocks are just chucks or irregular crystals of other, somewhat soluble, heavy metal salts. Such salts are often brightly colored. The whole point is, the outer layer becomes a silicate salt of the heavy metal, which partly flakes off, and the the exposed surface builds, flakes off, and so on.

> **[Chemical garden](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_garden)**
>
> A chemical garden is a set of complex biological-looking structures created by mixing inorganic chemicals. Chemical gardening is an experiment in chemistry usually performed by adding metal salts, such as copper sulfate or cobalt(II) chloride, to an aqueous solution of sodium silicate (otherwise known as waterglass). This results in the growth of plant-like forms in minutes to hours.
> 
> 
> The chemical garden was first observed and described by Johann Rudolf Glauber in 1646. In its original form, ...

Now, if you want a porous item to become crystal encrusted, there’s another game to play. [How to Grow a Charcoal Crystal Garden](https://www.thoughtco.com/how-to-grow-a-charcoal-crystal-garden-602160)

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**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2019, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magic-coral-sodium-silicate-questions/832901/3 "2019-04-22T22:08:19Z")

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> [@Arkcon](#):
>
> Now, if you want a porous item to become crystal encrusted, there’s another game to play. [How to Grow a Charcoal Crystal Garden](https://www.thoughtco.com/how-to-grow-a-charcoal-crystal-garden-602160)

I was going to add that we had done it with charcoal back in elementary school. Looks like your link is likely the method we used – I remember the ammonia and the bluing.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2019, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magic-coral-sodium-silicate-questions/832901/4 "2019-04-23T19:09:20Z")

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Thanks, **Arkcon**!

So, if I want to use my statue as a base I have to buy more stuff. This leads to a few more questions-

Can I just use the kit I have and glue the resulting crystals on Cthulhu? Do I have to worry about some reaction between Gorilla Glue and the crystals? What can I coat the crystals in to waterproof them?