Phosguard to eliminate diatoms

[Madonia]

Sand bed is covered in diatoms. I was told silicates are the source. However I have 0 tds water from my RODI system from the start of the reef. Could be the dry rock I started out with?

Anyway- I was told that phosguard will eliminate silicates. I added some tonight after shutting down the GFO reactor. Phosphate was around 0.03...2 nights ago

anybody have success with eliminating diatoms with phosguard?

 

[Doctorgori]

everyone gets the brown phase or is your tank too old for that?
If not, this to shall pass
if the tank is old, this would be something new to me and I’ll follow

 

[SMSREEF]

Get some snails. They love to eat diatoms. And they will eat the algae that comes next.

 

[Duffer]

Phosguard may help with silicates,May help, but it will lower your phosphates more

 

[Madonia]

Phosguard may help with silicates,May help, but it will lower your phosphates more

Stronger than GFO?

 

[SMSREEF]

You do realize silica and phosphate are important in a reef ecosystem right? As are some diatoms.

Not sure why you would try and get rid of them with media. That’s a recipe for dinoflagellates.

 

[Reef.]

Sand bed is covered in diatoms. I was told silicates are the source. However I have 0 tds water from my RODI system from the start of the reef. Could be the dry rock I started out with?

Anyway- I was told that phosguard will eliminate silicates. I added some tonight after shutting down the GFO reactor. Phosphate was around 0.03...2 nights ago

anybody have success with eliminating diatoms with phosguard?

seemed to have helped mine, though that is not the reason I added phosguard, it was for the PO4 reduction.

Rodi may not remove all silicates, you can get a reading of 0 and still have silicate in the water, as said above they are not as scary as they sound, they are a very natural part of the reef.

 

[Madonia]

You do realize silica and phosphate are important in a reef ecosystem right? As are some diatoms.

Not sure why you would try and get rid of them with media. That’s a recipe for dinoflagellates.

I’m monitoring my phosphate very closely while doing this. Not attempting this blind. If anything, this is an experiment to see if phosguard works at removing diatoms, and how effective it may be at reducing silicates.

 

[Madonia]

I’m monitoring my phosphate very closely while doing this. Not attempting this blind. If anything, this is an experiment to see if phosguard works at removing diatoms, and how effective it may be at reducing silicates.

I also have neophos on hand if need be and have been feeding heavier.

yeah I understand diatoms are a natural part of a reef. But there’s no doubt that they are ugly.

 

[Reef.]

I’m monitoring my phosphate very closely while doing this. Not attempting this blind. If anything, this is an experiment to see if phosguard works at removing diatoms, and how effective it may be at reducing silicates.

phosguard is a known silicate remover it says it on the packet.

 

[Madonia]

phosguard is a known silicate remover it says it on the packet.

I am aware.
Wondering of it’s effectiveness.

 

[SMSREEF]

I’m monitoring my phosphate very closely while doing this. Not attempting this blind. If anything, this is an experiment to see if phosguard works at removing diatoms, and how effective it may be at reducing silicates.

Snails are awesome diatom removers (and they remove silica trapped in diatoms in that process). This is a pic of one of mine eating diatoms off my macroalgae.

here is a good article from @Randy Holmes-Farley

Silica In Reef Aquariums

Why would I recommend dosing silica? Largely because creatures in our tanks use it, the concentrations in our tanks (at least in mine) are below natural levels, and the sponges, mollusks, and diatoms may not be getting enough to thrive.

reefs.com

 

[Fourstars]

Dose nitrates.

 

[Reef.]

Dose nitrates.

he might have loads already!

 

[Fourstars]

Probably not if it’s a new tank and he has diatons

 

[Arabyps]

I too had a reading of 0 TDS but a severe diatom bloom. I sent a water sample to ATI for analysis. Sure enough I had high silicates in both the DT and RODI water. Apparently my DI filter was exhausted for silicate removeal but otherwise working. Per ATI recommendation I changed the DI cartridge and a new sample showed O silicates. I recommend doing a water test and depending upon results replace your DI filter.

 

[Reef.]

Probably not if it’s a new tank and he has diatons

I was thinking the opposite, it’s a new tank so will have nitrates aplenty

 

[Fourstars]

Depends how you start it. I’ve never had nitrates in a new tank.

 

[Reef.]

Depends how you start it. I’ve never had nitrates in a new tank.

Please explain...doesn’t the ammonia in a new tank correlate to the amount of nitrate in the tank?

 

[Fourstars]

Yes it all gets converted to nitrate, but if you start out with live rock, a few fish and corals and much patience you can balance the output.