silacabuster

foxhuntr · Feb 1, 2015

Does anyone have any experience with the silicabuster cartrige in their ro units ?.....i am having trouble with diatoms on my sandbed..... it has to be silica in my tank because my phosphates are reading .04 ppm..... dont have a silicate test kit to test level...but i noticed the silicabuster cartrige really drops the ph....i tried to run the silicabuster in my double chamber brs reactor under the tank just to get rid of the silica in the tank and it dropped my ph to 7.8 within 15 minutes so i took it off line and my ph is slowly coming back up....my normal ph is 8.0-8.2..... but none of my corals or fish are showing any signs of stress.....anybody else ever try this ?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 1, 2015

To clarify, all algae (including diatoms) need phosphate, nitrogen, and only diatoms need silicate. 0.04 ppm is enough that the phospahte itself won't limit the growth of most algae.

That said, limiting silicate can help with diatoms, and silica usually becomes unmeasurable in any reef tank not adding it.

There is a lot of silicate in my tap water, but not in my RO/DI water using normal cartridges.

Is the TDS of the RO/DI water 0 ppm?

Useful_Idiot · Feb 1, 2015

The spectrapure silica buster cartridge is for your ro water only. It is a deionizining resin that helps achieve 0 tds. You didn't run your salty tank water through it and back into your system did you?