I’m just finishing week number 4 with silica and the Dino’s are still on sand and attached to the walls on the coralline algae. I did a 3 day blackout a few months ago before the silica and the Dino’s went away but came back. Do you think doing a blackout now would help?? I’ll keep dosing the silica and keep nitrate and phosphate up. ThanksI'd no longer think of Si as something to dose to the level of NO3-N. Just get Si present and constantly available at a level that diatoms can use. For me, if my SiO2 was above 0.1-0.2ppm then diatoms had enough to grow. When I raised it higher ~1ppm SiO2, they didn't grow faster.
a few tenths to 1ppm SiO2 is a fine target, imo.