Homebrewing[edit]Sodium silicate flocculant properties are also used to clarify wine and beer by precipitating colloidal particles. As a clearing agent, though, sodium silicate (water glass) is sometimes confused with isinglass which is prepared from collagen extracted from the dried swim bladders of sturgeon and other fishes. Eggs preserved in a bucket of waterglass gel, and their shells, are sometimes also used (baked and crushed) to clear wine.[14]
Aquaculture[edit]Sodium silicate gel is also used as a substrate for algal growth in aquaculture hatcheries.
Safe construction[edit]A mixture of sodium silicate and sawdust has been used in between the double skin of certain safes. This not only makes them more fire resistant, but also makes cutting them open with an oxyacetylene torch extremely difficult due to the smoke emitted.
Crystal gardens[edit]When crystals of a number of metallic salts are dropped into a solution of water glass, simple or branching stalagmites of coloured metal silicates are formed. This phenomenon has been used by manufacturers of toys and chemistry sets to provide instructive enjoyment to many generations of children from the early 20th century till the present. An early mention of crystals of metallic salts forming a "chemical garden" in sodium silicate is found in the 1946 Modern Mechanix magazine.[15] Metal salts used included the sulfates and/or chlorides of copper, cobalt, iron, nickel, and manganese