Diatoms

[anthonygf]

I would like to get a confirmation on this algae I have. I believe diatoms. My silicon has been rising from 78ppb to 474ppb in the last 6 months. My TDS is zero, after running through a cation, 2 anion and a mixed bed.

Is the silicon busting resin different than cation, anion and mixed? Would I benefit with adding this as a last stage? I wonder if stirring up the sand bed frequently will contribute to the high level. Can the silicon be removed from aquarium water?

Thanks for taking the time to help me with this Randy and anybody else. Be safe.

 

[Timfish]

What's your water change regimen?

 

[anthonygf]

What's your water change regimen?

Hi Tim, I was doing 10 gallon weekly on my 75, over that period I was down to once every 4-6 weeks to see if I can reduce my WC and dose all the elements needed and as long as my nutrients stay in the good range. Well I guess you figured why my silicon is climbing, lack of water changes. So my silicon must be coming from my substrate when I stir it up? So are those diatoms? Thanks for your reply.

 

[Timfish]

Well, there's a whole lot going on we can't test for and isn't removed with slimmers or GAC. if we are going tohave any hope of achieving even nominal life expectancies for the animals under our care water changes are essential.

Sorry, I couldn't say one way or another if your pictures are diatoms or something else. A long time ago I found manual removal was the best way for dealing with undesirable algae and just lump it all together as "nuisance" algae.

 

[Icryhard]

That doesn't look like diatoms imo. These look to be hard spots, rather then some slimy diarrea-like substance.
You mentioned lack of water change, but I seriously doubt this could be it. Diatoms their cells exist from silicate. The silicate should either reduce due to being used to create diatoms or you should be reducing it with a filter. Depending on how much your phospate and nitrate is, it could create a bloom since they consume phospate and nitrate (food source). The fact that its increasing means that it has been increased because of something you put in there. What kind of water are you adding? Sometimes the water can contain silicate as well.

 

[taricha]

Those aren't diatoms, but dinoflagellates (too fuzzy to make out what type).
Silica isn't driving the dino bloom, so isn't to blame here.

 

[anthonygf]

Those aren't diatoms, but dinoflagellates (too fuzzy to make out what type).
Silica isn't driving the dino bloom, so isn't to blame here.

Well I still need to reduce silicates. My NO3- 33.4ppm and PO4- 0.178ppm hasn't changed in 3 years. I just started vodka dosing to lower my nutrients a little and of course back to weekly WC. Thanks Taricha.

 

[anthonygf]

That doesn't look like diatoms imo. These look to be hard spots, rather then some slimy diarrea-like substance.
You mentioned lack of water change, but I seriously doubt this could be it. Diatoms their cells exist from silicate. The silicate should either reduce due to being used to create diatoms or you should be reducing it with a filter. Depending on how much your phospate and nitrate is, it could create a bloom since they consume phospate and nitrate (food source). The fact that its increasing means that it has been increased because of something you put in there. What kind of water are you adding? Sometimes the water can contain silicate as well.

Well I still need to reduce silicates. My NO3- 33.4ppm and PO4- 0.178ppm hasn't changed in 3 years. I just started vodka dosing to lower my nutrients a little and of course back to weekly WC.

My TDS is zero after several DI canisters. I think it is from stirring up the sand almost every day to keep the algae in the water column so my internal polishing filter can removed it. I guess the filter does not remove silicates. Thanks for your help.

 

[anthonygf]

Well, there's a whole lot going on we can't test for and isn't removed with slimmers or GAC. if we are going tohave any hope of achieving even nominal life expectancies for the animals under our care water changes are essential.

Sorry, I couldn't say one way or another if your pictures are diatoms or something else. A long time ago I found manual removal was the best way for dealing with undesirable algae and just lump it all together as "nuisance" algae.

Can silicates in aquarium water be removed by adding a filter to the sump? I didn't have this problem for 7 years, nothing has changed that I can recall.
My NO3- 33.4ppm and PO4- 0.178ppm hasn't changed in 3 years.

 

[anthonygf]

Can silicates in aquarium water be removed by adding a filter to the sump? I didn't have this problem for 7 years, nothing has changed that I can recall.
My NO3- 33.4ppm and PO4- 0.178ppm hasn't changed in 3 years.

Just silicon has increased in the last few months.

 

[Timfish]

Can silicates in aquarium water be removed by adding a filter to the sump? I didn't have this problem for 7 years, nothing has changed that I can recall.
My NO3- 33.4ppm and PO4- 0.178ppm hasn't changed in 3 years.

Hmmmm, actually it's a certanty a lot has changed. My experiences over the last 4 decades clearly showed to me reef systems are very dynamic and there's a lot more is goining on than what we can test for. This study showed even with a tightly monitored system microbial stuff is all over the place. Ideally knowing how much change there was day to day for several months before silicate started climbing would be helpful but I don't know anybody doing that much testing. 2 things I do know is sooner or later no matter how "stable" a system may be nuisance algae of some kind can show up, maybe rarely, maybe seasonally, and manual removal works well and IMO is the best way of "resetting" a system.

Considering how long you've gone without issues it sounds like you're seeing a case of "Old Tank Syndrome". I imagine there is something you could use to reduce silicates in your system and you can research to see what it is. But My suspicion is there's something else more systemic going on and what you need to do is larger or more consistant water changes (5% to 10% weekly) and more aggressive removal (this is what I do). I would stop carbon dosing, there's tons of research showing increases in DOC aka carbon dosing is detrimental for corals causing issues both acute and chronic issues short term as well as over the long haul.

Here's some of the stuff on DOC:

Maintenance of Coral Reef Health (refferences at the end)


"Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas" This video compliments Rohwer's book of the same title (Paper back is ~$20, Kindle is ~$10), both deal with the conflicting roles of the different types of DOC in reef ecosystems. While there is overlap bewteen his book and the video both have information not covered by the other and together give a broader view of the complex relationships found in reef ecosystems


Changing Seas - Mysterious Microbes


Microbial view of Coral Decline


Nitrogen cycling in hte coral holobiont


BActeria and Sponges

 

[anthonygf]

I believe you are correct and will do a few more frequent water changes and then go back to 10% weekly. I will stop carbon dosing, my nutrients have decreased some but the tank was okay for a couple years with high NO3 and PO4 numbers. The lack of water changes and stirring up the sand bed is what I believe caused my problem. Thanks for the informational videos, this will keep me busy for a few hours.

 

[bushdoc]

One think to ponder-If those are Dinos ( and they look like), many people add silica to grow diatoms as a part of strategy to ged rid of the former.
As for Carbon dosing, there are also people doing it for Coral nutrition, not only to lower Nitrates/phosphates. I have limited personal experience in carbon dosing, but I would recommend doing some more "research" before deciding what to do with it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I agree that you do not need nor should you even want to reduce silicate. If diatoms are not a problem, silicate is not a concern.

I regularly dosed it, and growing diatoms does often help with dinos.

This is from a previous article in my ICP testing:

Silicon (Si): 56 ug/L. I dose silicate (as sodium silicate solution) to my aquarium. I boost the concentration to about 200 µg/L of silicon equivalent once a week or so. This water sample was drawn one week after the last dose of silicate. I know from previous studies that silicate is rapidly depleted in my tank, presumably by sponges (the reason I dose it), by diatoms, and possibly by the GFO that I use to bind phosphate.

 

[anthonygf]

I agree that you do not need nor should you even want to reduce silicate. If diatoms are not a problem, silicate is not a concern.

I regularly dosed it, and growing diatoms does often help with dinos.

This is from a previous article in my ICP testing:

Silicon (Si): 56 ug/L. I dose silicate (as sodium silicate solution) to my aquarium. I boost the concentration to about 200 µg/L of silicon equivalent once a week or so. This water sample was drawn one week after the last dose of silicate. I know from previous studies that silicate is rapidly depleted in my tank, presumably by sponges (the reason I dose it), by diatoms, and possibly by the GFO that I use to bind phosphate.

So I have dinos? My silicon went up from 78ppm ICP test in June to 472ppm in Nov test. This high silicon is not a problem? Thanks Randy.

 

[anthonygf]

One think to ponder-If those are Dinos ( and they look like), many people add silica to grow diatoms as a part of strategy to ged rid of the former.
As for Carbon dosing, there are also people doing it for Coral nutrition, not only to lower Nitrates/phosphates. I have limited personal experience in carbon dosing, but I would recommend doing some more "research" before deciding what to do with it.

Well I did research carbon dosing and figured with my high nutrient level it can't hurt to try it and just lower my nutrients a little to see if it helps with my algae problem. I also have hair algae mixed in that I failed to mention. I lowered NO3 from 33ppm to 27.7 and PO4 0.19ppm to 0.127ppm in 4 days.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So I have dinos? My silicon went up from 78ppm ICP test in June to 472ppm in Nov test. This high silicon is not a problem? Thanks Randy.

I cannot tell from the pictures, and am not an expert on identifying them. I was going based on what others thought of the pictures.

Silicon is not any concern that I know of aside from diatoms.

 

[anthonygf]

I cannot tell from the pictures, and am not an expert on identifying them. I was going based on what others thought of the pictures.

Silicon is not any concern that I know of aside from diatoms.

I looked all over this sight for good pics of what looks like mine and is very hard, maybe because of the hair algae mixed in that I failed to mention. They are like dark brown dots swimming around, photo taken of microscope image on computer screen.

 

[Lavey29]

My RODI was 0 TDS but ICP showed my RODI was high in silicate in the 400s. I had a light dusting of diatoms on my sand over a year. Didn't really bother me. Changed to a spectrapure silicate buster DI filter and my recent ICP shows 0 silicate in my RODI now and my diatoms went away only to be replaced but this scattered low level turf algae that my herbivores like to eat in the tank. Perhaps some things are better left as they are.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Often the thought is that low nutrients cause dino, which it appears as such. Then tests point to zero readings and tank owner counters with adding phos, nitrate supplements and silicate. Thing is, the dinos have consumed them why they are at zero and are multiplying and feeding off these additives. Nutrient instability is the culprit often achieved from impatience from tank owner.
Blackouts and UV will address it as one method.