philosophile
Active Member
Hi guys! I've been enjoying your chaeto experiment and I was just wondering if you would be willing to do an experiment on silica dosing as a method of reducing nitrate and phosphate? For a while people were dosing silica to encourage diatom growth which would then be skimmed out of the tank.
You could run a test by using a control with nothing but a skimmer and fresh SW, and lit. Add some nitrogenous fertilizer and phosphate fertilizer. Repeat with another tank and add silica as well. See if there is a reduction in Phosphate and nitrate, also you could check skimmate in both tanks for diatoms.
You could run a test by using a control with nothing but a skimmer and fresh SW, and lit. Add some nitrogenous fertilizer and phosphate fertilizer. Repeat with another tank and add silica as well. See if there is a reduction in Phosphate and nitrate, also you could check skimmate in both tanks for diatoms.
It's a pretty interesting concept that I would be interested in, myself! 
