Dosing silicates for general chemistry or just for dinos

[Mikeltee]

Hey guys. I've tried just about everything to get rid of dinos except for dosing silicates. I've got a bottle on order. Do you guys regularly dose silicates even if you don't have dinos? Do you do this as dinos prevention or is it just good to maintain 1ppm for general tank chemistry? I have a feeling that this isn't going to work out for me and ill be starting over anyways, but when I get back going, I want to do whatever I can to avoid gettibg them again.

I went 12 years without dinos. Actually I had never experienced any problems. I was having troubles with SPS so I tried lowering my Nitrates and Phosphates with GMO and I bottomed out and ended up with dinos. That was 2 years ago and I haven't been able to get rid of them since. The problem with my SPS surfaced once I rented a light meter. I was burning them out because I had too much light.

I plan to get the Hanna Silca checker to gradually build up to 3ppm to see if it helps with dinos. I don't see any feedback on the Hanna. Does it work? If dosing silcates is only for dinos I may just forgo the Hanna and see what happens to the dinos over the course of the next few months. I'll probably put my fish in a hospital tank while I conduct this experiment. I only have 3 left and all my corals died from the dinos. Dinos really kills your love for this hobby.

 

[blaxsun]

Never even contemplated dosing silicates myself.

 

[gbroadbridge]

Hey guys. I've tried just about everything to get rid of dinos except for dosing silicates. I've got a bottle on order. Do you guys regularly dose silicates even if you don't have dinos? Do you do this as dinos prevention or is it just good to maintain 1ppm for general tank chemistry? I have a feeling that this isn't going to work out for me and ill be starting over anyways, but when I get back going, I want to do whatever I can to avoid gettibg them again.

I went 12 years without dinos. Actually I had never experienced any problems. I was having troubles with SPS so I tried lowering my Nitrates and Phosphates with GMO and I bottomed out and ended up with dinos. That was 2 years ago and I haven't been able to get rid of them since. The problem with my SPS surfaced once I rented a light meter. I was burning them out because I had too much light.

I plan to get the Hanna Silca checker to gradually build up to 3ppm to see if it helps with dinos. I don't see any feedback on the Hanna. Does it work? If dosing silcates is only for dinos I may just forgo the Hanna and see what happens to the dinos over the course of the next few months. I'll probably put my fish in a hospital tank while I conduct this experiment. I only have 3 left and all my corals died from the dinos. Dinos really kills your love for this hobby.

Have you tried Dino X?

As much as I generally dislike that type of treatment it worked magic for me.

I've believe silica works by promoting growth of Diatoms. which outcomptete unwanted Dino's.
I don't think anyone desires a continuous Diatom bloom that would result from continuing silica dosing.

 

[Mikeltee]

Have you tried Dino X?

As much as I generally dislike that type of treatment it worked magic for me.

I've believe silica works by promoting growth of Diatoms. which outcomptete unwanted Dino's.
I don't think anyone desires a continuous Diatom bloom that would result from continuing silica dosing.

I tried it a few times. It did a pretty good job of clearing them up to about 90% the first time, but they became resistant to it.

 

[danimal1211]

Have you considered an icp test? It may show that some of your other elements are out of whack.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I never had Dino’s and chose to dose silicate to boost sponges and diatoms.

 

[Miami Reef]

I never had Dino’s and chose to dose silicate to boost sponges and diatoms.

Same. I never dealt with dinos, but I dose a lot of silica. I don’t have a diatom problem. I grow diatoms on the glass, but eventually coralline takes over (before I scrape it off lol).

Diatoms is free phytoplankton when you scrape it, and is less sightly than the green algae it replaces. It’s food for copepods and snails. It’s also grows sponges.

Why wouldn’t you dose it?

 

[Idoc]

Dosing silicates didn't help with my dino problem a few years ago. I followed the Elegant Corals Dino/Cyano protocol and it was what actually removed the dinos for me. I had small cell amphidinium dinos.

 

[MabuyaQ]

Don't see how replacing one pest problem with the other is going to fix this. Once you need to get rid of the diatom bloom you want/need to create, the dino's will return (or something like cyano). The same reason why the Dino-X didn't help long term, you never fixed the underlying problem.
So what are your nutrient (nitrate, phosphate) levels at now and if you have them what are your ICP results and how are the trends within the ICP tests since this dino problem showed up.

 

[Miami Reef]

Don't see how replacing one pest problem with the other is going to fix this.

Every tank that grows corals is going to grow algae.

Diatoms are readily consumed by herbivores.

You cannot compare diatoms with dinoflagellates, which the latter is toxic.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Don't see how replacing one pest problem with the other is going to fix this. Once you need to get rid of the diatom bloom you want/need to create, the dino's will return (or something like cyano). The same reason why the Dino-X didn't help long term, you never fixed the underlying problem.
So what are your nutrient (nitrate, phosphate) levels at now and if you have them what are your ICP results and how are the trends within the ICP tests since this dino problem showed up.

Diatoms are not problematic the way Dino’s are.

Every time I dosed silicate, the green algae on the glass was replaced either a golden sheen which was less visually annoying then the green.

 

[Mikeltee]

Have you considered an icp test? It may show that some of your other elements are out of whack.

Yes. I'm going to get one done ASAP. Thanks for mentioning it.

 

[Mikeltee]

Diatoms are not problematic the way Dino’s are.

Every time I dosed silicate, the green algae on the glass was replaced either a golden sheen which was less visually annoying then the green.

He obviously has never dealt with dinos before.... I will see how dosing silicated goes. It takes me 2 minutes to clean my seamless bowfront glass.

 

[Mikeltee]

I dosed my first round of silicates yesterday. 1ml for 150g total. I just picked up a Hanna 705 as well. I plan to hold a 2.0ppm concentration until i dont see any more dinos under the microscope. I'm relocating my 57 watt UV from the return line to a closed loop in the display. I've had Coolia for over 2 years. Let's see what happens!

 

[Mikeltee]

I got my LR Silicate Hanna Checker. Over the course of a week, I dosed 3ml total silcate in 150g. The checker reads >2.00ppm. My RODI w/ DI (Airwaterice tyhoon 3) with brand new filters and DI reads .39ppm. I should try tap... Obviously .39 didn't keep the dinos away. Before the dinos, I didn't have any trouble. Over the course of 12 years, I had cyno twice so .39ppm hasn't been a bad thing. I should also do an ICP to see if the meter is accurate. Over the course of a week of dosing silicates, I've notice a lot more algae growth and some cyno starting on my sandbed. I need to take a sample and look at it under the microscope and make sure I'm not just feeding the dinos.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

and look at it under the microscope and make sure I'm not just feeding the dinos.

Feeding them what? They do not consume silicate.

 

[Reefahholic]

I like keeping some in my system. It definitely helps the sponge to become established. I also noticed that it made some starving GHA or Turf algae on my starboard turn bright green and look very healthy early on (not out of control though). It did feed my Dino’s initially even with the dose very spread out and dosed over several days, but I think it brings some benefits later as the diatom population increases.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I like keeping some in my system. It definitely helps the sponge to become established. I also noticed that it made some starving GHA or Turf algae on my starboard turn bright green and look very healthy early on (not out of control though). It did feed my Dino’s initially even with the dose very spread out and dosed over several days, but I think it brings some benefits later as the diatom population increases.

Not sure why you observed an effect on dinos, but I do not think any types of dinos use silicate.

 

[Reefahholic]

Not sure why you observed an effect on dinos, but I do not think any types of dinos use silicate.

It definitely fuels some species. They may or may not use it as a fuel source. It could be causing a small destabilizing event. Not sure why they seem to like it. Many other people have observed the same in the Dino groups.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It definitely fuels some species. They may or may not use it as a fuel source. It could be causing a small destabilizing event. Not sure why they seem to like it. Many other people have observed the same in the Dino groups.

I do not agree. It spurs organisms that use it (sponges, diatoms, etc.) , but dino's are not one of them. Some dinos are heterotrophs that can consume diatoms.