I hope I remember how to do this

[Miami Reef]

I really don’t think it’s the sodium hydroxide to blame.

Diatoms need silica to grow/flourish. I dose A LOT of silica and use sodium hydroxide for my alkalinity. I don’t even have diatom issues in my tank, lol.

I have diatoms on the back glass, powerheads, and front glass, but my rocks and bottom are clean.

Anyway, they have like 100% pure sodium hydroxide. I’m a big fan of sodium hydroxide.

Check your RO/DI water. Silicate is one of the hardest chemicals to remove from DI, and it’s one of the first to leach out once the DI is exhausted.

Ps, diatoms benefit a tank as long as they aren’t growing over corals or being too much of an eye-sore. They are genuinely beneficial for many types of organisms.

Here’s the sodium hydroxide I use for my 260-gallon tank. I test my silica regularly, and if I don’t dose it, it will drop to 0ppm

Sodium Hydroxide - Pure - Food Grade (Caustic Soda, Lye) (2 Pound Jar) https://a.co/d/eMtsQmX

 

[cmaxwell39]

DI has recently been changed on schedule and RO always tests 0ppm. Not saying it can't be from another source, but this is the most logical thing since it is what has changed recently and everything had been stable for months before this change.

I got a different NaOH than the one you linked, so it is very possible that the one I got has silicates as a contaminant. I am not 100% sure, but it is my best guess right now. Will go back to last known point of stability and see if it corrects. Then I can re-evaluate how to move forward.

I appreciate the thoughts. How goes the battle against AEFW by the way?

 

[Miami Reef]

DI has recently been changed on schedule and RO always tests 0ppm. Not saying it can't be from another source, but this is the most logical thing since it is what has changed recently and everything had been stable for months before this change.

I got a different NaOH than the one you linked, so it is very possible that the one I got has silicates as a contaminant. I am not 100% sure, but it is my best guess right now. Will go back to last known point of stability and see if it corrects. Then I can re-evaluate how to move forward.

I appreciate the thoughts. How goes the battle against AEFW by the way?

What’s the purity of the sodium hydroxide you chose?

The battle with AEFW is almost over. The acros in QT are clean and free from the flatworms.

I have 2 weeks left until I can add back my acropora.

 

[cmaxwell39]

Awesome to hear on the flatworm battle. Hope you can move past it and enjoy acros in the tank again. I am working through your build thread right now.

It was labeled as 99% pure I believe. And if was labeled as good grade do I thought I would be good.

Time will tell if this is where the problem came from or not.

 

[Miami Reef]

Awesome to hear on the flatworm battle. Hope you can move past it and enjoy acros in the tank again. I am working through your build thread right now.

It was labeled as 99% pure I believe. And if was labeled as good grade do I thought I would be good.

Time will tell if this is where the problem came from or not.

lol

Don’t worry about working through my build thread. Most if it is chatter. I was thinking of starting a new one when the acropora are back in and just documenting the tank.

 

[cmaxwell39]

The chatter is good. Keeps things interesting. You have had quite the journey with your system. I will get caught up eventually.

 

[mattgsa]

The tank is looking good; I hope your wife is doing well.

 

[cmaxwell39]

The tank is looking good; I hope your wife is doing well.

Thanks Matt.

Tank does not look so good anymore. Long story, but hopefully I can give the thumbnail version here.

What I was starting to see show up last fall ended up being dinos. By the time I realized what it was I was already losing SPS. I have never run a UV before, and there wasn't really money available to go buy stuff for the tank. I really contemplated shutting the system down and getting out.

While discussing things with my wife, we both kind of realized that even if I shut everything down I would be getting the itch again within 6-12 months, so I might as well try to get it corrected. I fragged off pieces and moved them down to the coral QT which for some reason was never affected, even though I had been using water from the main tank when I did water changes on that system. I lost a few of those frags, but thankfully I was able to save a frag of 4 or 5 colonies that I completely lost from the display tank.

I scraped up the money and got an AquaUV unit and plumbed it in to the return pump on the system so that I didn't have to buy another pump as well. I also stopped doing water changes on the main tank for about 3-4 months. I normally do a water change every week, so this was a weird one for me. After a couple of months the dinos were definitely on the retreat so I restocked the cleanup crew which had been decimated, and started stirring the sand/blowing out rocks to see if the dinos would make a resurgence. Once everything looked good for a month or two doing that I finally have resumed water changes. In the next couple of weeks I will move a frag or two from the coral QT to the display. I lost a lot of SPS, but the ones that remain are starting to grow again.

Anyway, sorry for the long winded response. If you stuck around this long let me reward you with a recent FTS that shows a clean, but relatively empty coral wise tank.