Silica dosing

[Neoalchemist]

No you are fine. Mixing it into a larger volume of water helps a little, but not much and pouring it in front of your return pump helps a bit, but not much. You will get the snow regardless and it will disappear.

 

[Neoalchemist]

And 10 ml should be good to start its a relatively conservative amount.

 

[merereef]

No you are fine. Mixing it into a larger volume of water helps a little, but not much and pouring it in front of your return pump helps a bit, but not much. You will get the snow regardless and it will disappear.

So its normal nothing to worry about... thank you

 

[merereef]

And 10 ml should be good to start its a relatively conservative amount.

So been dosing still no diatoms todays 3rd day of dosing... shall i increase the dose untill i see diatoms

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So been dosing still no diatoms todays 3rd day of dosing... shall i increase the dose untill i see diatoms

maybe they are phosphate or nitrate limited.
do you get green growth on the glass and is that not changing to golden brown/yellow? Mine did.

 

[merereef]

maybe they are phosphate ot nitrate limited.
do you get green growth on the glass and is that not changing to golden brown/yellow? Mine did.

I do see green algea on glass now mixed with bit of brown tooo

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I do see green algea on glass now mixed with bit of brown tooo

That's means its working.

This is what I saw:

Feature Article: 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.

web.archive.org

Figure 3. A view of the inside of the front glass of my reef tank 5 days after scraping the glass.

Figure 6. A view of the inside of the front glass of my reef tank 5 days after scraping the glass and adding the silica supplement.

 

[merereef]

That's means its working.

This is what I saw:

Feature Article: 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.

web.archive.org

Figure 3. A view of the inside of the front glass of my reef tank 5 days after scraping the glass.

Figure 6. A view of the inside of the front glass of my reef tank 5 days after scraping the glass and adding the silica supplement.

Thank you for the pics.. i am seeing that... but i thought it was dinos... thank you... il keep dosing the 10ml for 60 gallons daily...

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thank you for the pics.. i am seeing that... but i thought it was dinos... thank you... il keep dosing the 10ml for 60 gallons daily...

well, I can’t be sure what yours is, but browning is expected.

 

[merereef]

well, I can’t be sure what yours is, but browning is expected.

Do you think maybe because im running a uv its slowing the doatoms down a little?

 

[Cory]

Youll most likely beat dinos increasing po4 and no3, not silicate dosing. Fwiw, thats a huge dose for a 60 gallon. 10 ml?

The flakes are likely magnesium hydroxide precipitation because sodium silicate has a high ph of 11 to 13. Be careful with that stuff.

Fwiw i dose it too but for me to raise 200 gallons to nsw levels 1.8ppm i only need around 5mls.

 

[merereef]

Youll most likely beat dinos increasing po4 and no3, not silicate dosing. Fwiw, thats a huge dose for a 60 gallon. 10 ml?

The flakes are likely magnesium hydroxide precipitation because sodium silicate has a high ph of 11 to 13. Be careful with that stuff.

Fwiw i dose it too but for me to raise 200 gallons to nsw levels 1.8ppm i only need around 5mls.

I see so i should definitely lower the dose lol...

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Do you think maybe because im running a uv its slowing the doatoms down a little?

That's possible, yes. I've never used a UV.

 

[merereef]

That's possible, yes. I've never used a UV.

Thanks randy

 

[Neoalchemist]

I did run uv through diatom blooms, although it may have inhibited the diatom a bit not sure but it worked fine anyway.
I think it is time to stop dosing and watch the tank for a few days.
If the dinos seem to still be increasing in numbers after say five days or so do another round of dosing. But cut your dose in half.
The transition from brown slime to brown film can be hard to see because it happens slow and all over the place at the same time. The diatoms do look green on the glass.
A microscope helps a lot here because the diatoms blend in with the dino. Especially when the dinos thin.

 

[merereef]

I did run uv through diatom blooms, although it may have inhibited the diatom a bit not sure but it worked fine anyway.
I think it is time to stop dosing and watch the tank for a few days.
If the dinos seem to still be increasing in numbers after say five days or so do another round of dosing. But cut your dose in half.
The transition from brown slime to brown film can be hard to see because it happens slow and all over the place at the same time. The diatoms do look green on the glass.
A microscope helps a lot here because the diatoms blend in with the dino. Especially when the dinos thin.

So i have noticed my tank glass doesnt need wiping twice a day like before and there is no brown algea on the glass its green... the brown was dinos and ive noticed no dino growth on the powerheads either... so il keep an eye out and lower dose to half

 

[taricha]

Realize that dinos are exponential reproducers. So when their population plateaus, that means they are encountering a nutrient limitation (most likely). This occurs even in systems with plenty of N and P.
So now you are introducing Si which will allow diatoms to start trying to exponentially grow too. They will (probably) encounter the same limitations that plateaued the dino growth.
For this reason, people who dose Si after dino outbreak usually don't get a diatom "bloom."
Is it working? Probably. You are already reporting changes in the growth pattern of your dinos. And that's the goal. Where before, newly available resources got grabbed up by dinos, now an increasing number of those new cells will be diatoms instead. But it shows up at the microscope level before the naked eye level.

 

[Neoalchemist]

Realize that dinos are exponential reproducers. So when their population plateaus, that means they are encountering a nutrient limitation (most likely). This occurs even in systems with plenty of N and P.
So now you are introducing Si which will allow diatoms to start trying to exponentially grow too. They will (probably) encounter the same limitations that plateaued the dino growth.
For this reason, people who dose Si after dino outbreak usually don't get a diatom "bloom."
Is it working? Probably. You are already reporting changes in the growth pattern of your dinos. And that's the goal. Where before, newly available resources got grabbed up by dinos, now an increasing number of those new cells will be diatoms instead. But it shows up at the microscope level before the naked eye level.

This is another reason I never agreed with stopping water changes in a dino fight. Fear of nutrient limitation that I cannot detect easily. I run cheato in all of my systems and over the years it teaches you about supporting the the supporting systems. By stopping water changes and changing feeding habits I feel you will eventually run into nutrient shortages of microbes and algea that compete with the dino.

 

[merereef]

Realize that dinos are exponential reproducers. So when their population plateaus, that means they are encountering a nutrient limitation (most likely). This occurs even in systems with plenty of N and P.
So now you are introducing Si which will allow diatoms to start trying to exponentially grow too. They will (probably) encounter the same limitations that plateaued the dino growth.
For this reason, people who dose Si after dino outbreak usually don't get a diatom "bloom."
Is it working? Probably. You are already reporting changes in the growth pattern of your dinos. And that's the goal. Where before, newly available resources got grabbed up by dinos, now an increasing number of those new cells will be diatoms instead. But it shows up at the microscope level before the naked eye level.

So for a few days i had a green algea on sand bed with bubbles that came when lights turned on... today i noticed its less green on sand bed and NOOOO bubbles so seems to be working and im not seeing any BROWN DUST DIATOMS ANYWHERE... thank you taricha

 

[merereef]

This is another reason I never agreed with stopping water changes in a dino fight. Fear of nutrient limitation that I cannot detect easily. I run cheato in all of my systems and over the years it teaches you about supporting the the supporting systems. By stopping water changes and changing feeding habits I feel you will eventually run into nutrient shortages of microbes and algea that compete with the dino.

Thank you... can you explain what you mean by running cheato to support the system? Would you say refugium is better than say no pox(carbon source)