Swingline77
Active Member
First off, Randy, if you're reading this, thanks for the advanced aquarist article that you wrote on this.
The primary focus of my tank is abalone. For this reason, I'd like to have sufficient silicates in the water. Since silicates can be depleted so rapidly, I'd like to just be able to dose every day but not have to check levels every day.
So, my first question is, can silicates be too high for MY purposes? I understand that sodium silicate raises pH. So, at some point, to much silicate would mean that pH would be too high. It seems that this is not really a practical concern, since it would take the addition of quite a bit more than would be ordinarily added in order for the pH to be raised by any appreciable amount.
As for dinos, I frankly don't know what causes them. I've read quite a bit about them, and those that have them seem to have a hard time getting rid of them. The reason for this seems to be that no one is entirely sure what causes them other than a tank lacking biodiversity (what kind, I don't know), being too low in pH, and being wildly out of spec in other areas. As for dinos and silicates, it seems that if dinos are established, silicates will help the dinos grow, which would be a problem. Other than this, I don't know what effect silicates would have on dinos.
The big issue with silicates seems to be the growth of algae. At first, I didn't see this as a problem. I just looked at algae as being food for the abalone. It seems that some species of chrysophytes are toxic, though. So, if high silicates promotes the growth of toxic algae, then my levels can be too high. I wouldn't know how to deal with this, though. If I keep the silicates low, then the abalone might not have enough. Maybe the silicates could be kept high, as long as I have plenty of macro algae? The aesthetics of the tank are not important, so maybe I could even dose the tank with beneficial algae. What do you think?
The primary focus of my tank is abalone. For this reason, I'd like to have sufficient silicates in the water. Since silicates can be depleted so rapidly, I'd like to just be able to dose every day but not have to check levels every day.
So, my first question is, can silicates be too high for MY purposes? I understand that sodium silicate raises pH. So, at some point, to much silicate would mean that pH would be too high. It seems that this is not really a practical concern, since it would take the addition of quite a bit more than would be ordinarily added in order for the pH to be raised by any appreciable amount.
As for dinos, I frankly don't know what causes them. I've read quite a bit about them, and those that have them seem to have a hard time getting rid of them. The reason for this seems to be that no one is entirely sure what causes them other than a tank lacking biodiversity (what kind, I don't know), being too low in pH, and being wildly out of spec in other areas. As for dinos and silicates, it seems that if dinos are established, silicates will help the dinos grow, which would be a problem. Other than this, I don't know what effect silicates would have on dinos.
The big issue with silicates seems to be the growth of algae. At first, I didn't see this as a problem. I just looked at algae as being food for the abalone. It seems that some species of chrysophytes are toxic, though. So, if high silicates promotes the growth of toxic algae, then my levels can be too high. I wouldn't know how to deal with this, though. If I keep the silicates low, then the abalone might not have enough. Maybe the silicates could be kept high, as long as I have plenty of macro algae? The aesthetics of the tank are not important, so maybe I could even dose the tank with beneficial algae. What do you think?
