Your experience with silicate dosing

[AutumnReefs]

I was curious if you all saw more sponges pop up after dosing silicate. I am considering it as I enjoyed the yellow puffy sponges I had before I cared about using DI resin (I think that is why they died out) but I am wondering if its worth dosing another liquid. I don't want to test for it so I would be dosing half the recommended amount if that at all (thinking about brightwell sponge excel).

 

[Cory]

I dose but my salifert test never detects it. I use sodium silicate (water glass) i dose 1ml per day for a week now. Ive noticed an increase in white sponges under the rocks. I also have that yellow encrusting sponge and some tubucate white tube looking thing. I didnt noticed any diatom growth either which makes me wonder if its actually silicate!

 

[elysics]

I dose what I think I calculated a long while ago to be roughly 1ppm daily. I put it in my alkalinity reservoir, as I found that splitting that much into less than 4 doses gives me a local cloud of high ph travelling around the tank and really ticking my zoas off

Got relatively small sponges all around the tank and this guy that came from nothing whose growth I definitely attribute to the dosing

 

[Cory]

I dose what I think I calculated a long while ago to be roughly 1ppm daily. I put it in my alkalinity reservoir, as I found that splitting that much into less than 4 doses gives me a local cloud of high ph travelling around the tank and really ticking my zoas off

Got relatively small sponges all around the tank and this guy that came from nothing whose growth I definitely attribute to the dosing

Oh nice! What did you use to dose water glass?

 

[elysics]

Oh nice! What did you use to dose water glass?

36% technical grade sodium silicate solution from fischar, 5€ per liter and a liter goes a loooong way, I think it was 10 years or more at my current dose for my roughly 15 gallon tank

 

[AutumnReefs]

I also wonder if my lawnmower ate those particular sponges I had. Before they disappeared (all but a tiny trace of one left), most had a bite mark that fit the mouth of the blenny, not to mention I thought I saw the blenny nip at one. Then again, I have never heard of a blenny eating a sponge.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Silicate dosing and carbon dosing together increased the sponges in my system. It's still a long slow process.