I hope I remember how to do this

[Miami Reef]

I really don’t think it’s the sodium hydroxide to blame.

Diatoms need silica to grow/flourish. I dose A LOT of silica and use sodium hydroxide for my alkalinity. I don’t even have diatom issues in my tank, lol.

I have diatoms on the back glass, powerheads, and front glass, but my rocks and bottom are clean.

Anyway, they have like 100% pure sodium hydroxide. I’m a big fan of sodium hydroxide.

Check your RO/DI water. Silicate is one of the hardest chemicals to remove from DI, and it’s one of the first to leach out once the DI is exhausted.

Ps, diatoms benefit a tank as long as they aren’t growing over corals or being too much of an eye-sore. They are genuinely beneficial for many types of organisms.

Here’s the sodium hydroxide I use for my 260-gallon tank. I test my silica regularly, and if I don’t dose it, it will drop to 0ppm

Sodium Hydroxide - Pure - Food Grade (Caustic Soda, Lye) (2 Pound Jar) https://a.co/d/eMtsQmX

 

[cmaxwell39]

DI has recently been changed on schedule and RO always tests 0ppm. Not saying it can't be from another source, but this is the most logical thing since it is what has changed recently and everything had been stable for months before this change.

I got a different NaOH than the one you linked, so it is very possible that the one I got has silicates as a contaminant. I am not 100% sure, but it is my best guess right now. Will go back to last known point of stability and see if it corrects. Then I can re-evaluate how to move forward.

I appreciate the thoughts. How goes the battle against AEFW by the way?

 

[Miami Reef]

DI has recently been changed on schedule and RO always tests 0ppm. Not saying it can't be from another source, but this is the most logical thing since it is what has changed recently and everything had been stable for months before this change.

I got a different NaOH than the one you linked, so it is very possible that the one I got has silicates as a contaminant. I am not 100% sure, but it is my best guess right now. Will go back to last known point of stability and see if it corrects. Then I can re-evaluate how to move forward.

I appreciate the thoughts. How goes the battle against AEFW by the way?

What’s the purity of the sodium hydroxide you chose?

The battle with AEFW is almost over. The acros in QT are clean and free from the flatworms.

I have 2 weeks left until I can add back my acropora.

 

[cmaxwell39]

Awesome to hear on the flatworm battle. Hope you can move past it and enjoy acros in the tank again. I am working through your build thread right now.

It was labeled as 99% pure I believe. And if was labeled as good grade do I thought I would be good.

Time will tell if this is where the problem came from or not.

 

[Miami Reef]

Awesome to hear on the flatworm battle. Hope you can move past it and enjoy acros in the tank again. I am working through your build thread right now.

It was labeled as 99% pure I believe. And if was labeled as good grade do I thought I would be good.

Time will tell if this is where the problem came from or not.

lol

Don’t worry about working through my build thread. Most if it is chatter. I was thinking of starting a new one when the acropora are back in and just documenting the tank.

 

[cmaxwell39]

The chatter is good. Keeps things interesting. You have had quite the journey with your system. I will get caught up eventually.

 

[mattgsa]

The tank is looking good; I hope your wife is doing well.

 

[cmaxwell39]

The tank is looking good; I hope your wife is doing well.

Thanks Matt.

Tank does not look so good anymore. Long story, but hopefully I can give the thumbnail version here.

What I was starting to see show up last fall ended up being dinos. By the time I realized what it was I was already losing SPS. I have never run a UV before, and there wasn't really money available to go buy stuff for the tank. I really contemplated shutting the system down and getting out.

While discussing things with my wife, we both kind of realized that even if I shut everything down I would be getting the itch again within 6-12 months, so I might as well try to get it corrected. I fragged off pieces and moved them down to the coral QT which for some reason was never affected, even though I had been using water from the main tank when I did water changes on that system. I lost a few of those frags, but thankfully I was able to save a frag of 4 or 5 colonies that I completely lost from the display tank.

I scraped up the money and got an AquaUV unit and plumbed it in to the return pump on the system so that I didn't have to buy another pump as well. I also stopped doing water changes on the main tank for about 3-4 months. I normally do a water change every week, so this was a weird one for me. After a couple of months the dinos were definitely on the retreat so I restocked the cleanup crew which had been decimated, and started stirring the sand/blowing out rocks to see if the dinos would make a resurgence. Once everything looked good for a month or two doing that I finally have resumed water changes. In the next couple of weeks I will move a frag or two from the coral QT to the display. I lost a lot of SPS, but the ones that remain are starting to grow again.

Anyway, sorry for the long winded response. If you stuck around this long let me reward you with a recent FTS that shows a clean, but relatively empty coral wise tank.

 

[cmaxwell39]

Been a while since I posted. Have t done a whole lot with the tank. It is getting over run with aiptasia, so just got an order of berghia nudibranchs in. We will see how that goes over the next few months.

In other news, I have gotten the opportunity to try out a piece of equipment that I have always wanted. A buddy of mine about an hour away is getting ready to downsize his tank and has 2 bubble king skimmers. I worked something out with him to be able to try out the BK 250 deluxe that he had. It is on the large side for my system, but that was the smaller of the two he had so I am giving it a go. It has been running for about a month. Stay tuned for my impressions of it so far.

 

[cmaxwell39]

Well first of all, this Bubble King skimmer is LARGE. I thought I had created a pretty big skimmer section in my 125 gal basement sump, but this thing barely fit in there. Had to angle it and it was still touching both sides.

 

[cmaxwell39]

Thoughts on the BK skimmer. I had been running a LifeReef 36" VS3 skimmer driven by a Sicce SDC 9.0 prior.

1. pH has risen ~.2 and remained in the .2 higher range since BK skimmer was installed. Tells me it is drawing in significantly more air than the LR skimmer.

2. It is very adjustable and seems stable. Pulls approximately the same amount of skimmate (by visual estimation) each day.

3. There seems to be less bacterial slime in the sump (from carbon dosing). I have increased the vodka dosage since installing the BK skimmer as well.

4. I don't think the BK skimmer pulls as much out as the LR did. It is a very large cup on the BK skimmer, but it is a large cup on the LR skimmer as well. (I got the upgraded cup when I ordered it years ago). I also can run the LR skimmer drier than I can run the BK.

5. The nitrates and phosphates have risen since installing the BK skimmer. This lends to not pulling as much out, but there are a couple of other factors. I have significantly increased frozen food to the tank to try to keep the BK stable, but I have also increased carbon dosing to try to compensate. The nitrates and phosphates are going up week over week though and have not fully stabilized.

A note regarding how dry I can run the skimmer, the BK skimmer is at least one size too big for my system, so if I try to dry it out too much it stalls. I knew this would be the case going in and I am still impressed with how stable and consistent the BK skimmer remains.

Here is two weeks worth of skimmate out of the BK skimmer.

Overall I have been impressed with how stable this skimmer has been on my system, and how easy it has been to adjust. The quality and the amount of the skimmate are within line snd I am not unhappy with the results so far, but I do have some plans laid out for a better comparison to the LifeReef skimmer I have been running for a long time. More on that at a future date.