I’m dosing silicate large cell amphidinium dinos

b4tn · Dec 22, 2020

Starting a thread to document my progress. Current status is I have large cell amphidinium dinos. It only touches the sand and I have lost 90% of my cleanup crew. My plan of attack is to dose sodium silicate. I opted for the loudwolf 41% water glass because it’s the same place I get my sodium nitrate and is lab grade.

this is the microscope I got. It was $30 on sale when I got. My only regret is I wish I got one that was USB for pictures. It’s a royal pain trying to get pictures with my phone

My tank is 70 gallons of water volume. Nitrate is at 10ppm and phosphate is at .05. I am currently 10 days in dosing. I miscalculated the dose and have been severely under dosing. Once I caught the mistake I worked my way up to dosing 2ml a day of water glass. I am using a seachem silicate test kit and and currently sitting somewhere between 2-3 ppm of silicate. He are som scope and before pictures. I will get some current picture here in a bit and update my progress as I go.

b4tn · Dec 22, 2020

And here are some updated scope pics at 2-3ppm silicate. I am starting to see diatoms finally

FL_Reef · Dec 30, 2020

Following. I have almost the same tank and same problem. Going the same route as you

b4tn · Dec 31, 2020

It’s slow going but I’m definitely seeing improvement. Certain parts of the sand bed are clearing up and other places it looks like the dinos are breaking up/thinking out. I’m dosing 1.5 ml of 40% every other day right now and that keeps me above 2ppm. I checked the a sample just now under the microscope and I am definitely seeing diatoms.

clhardy5 · Jan 26, 2021

b4tn said:
It’s slow going but I’m definitely seeing improvement. Certain parts of the sand bed are clearing up and other places it looks like the dinos are breaking up/thinking out. I’m dosing 1.5 ml of 40% every other day right now and that keeps me above 2ppm. I checked the a sample just now under the microscope and I am definitely seeing diatoms.

Curious to see where you are at right now? I have Prorocentrum and have been dosing silicates....and my tank is looking better every day. Definitely a lot of diatoms on the glass, and sad. Still see a few dinos in each sample....but I used to see thousands!

b4tn · Jan 26, 2021

clhardy5 said:
Curious to see where you are at right now? I have Prorocentrum and have been dosing silicates....and my tank is looking better every day. Definitely a lot of diatoms on the glass, and sad. Still see a few dinos in each sample....but I used to see thousands!

I got a job in Hawaii. Lol. Sold all my livestock and getting ready to sell equipment. But yes, it worked. Once I started breaking down the dinos where almost all gone.