Reducing Silicates (Without GFO?)

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thank you Randy. I guess I will continue to monitor. I might take a sample of mixed saltwater and see what I come up with. Using IO right now. Although, if my RODI water is close to undetectable there shouldn’t be much in the saltwater mix, correct? I remember someone saying that silica can be consumed by the diatoms and sponges in the tank. I guess I will just have to wait and see...

Thanks again for all of your insight on this.

IO wouldn't be a substantial source, unless there was a manufacturing problem.

Yes, diatoms and other organisms take it up and it depleted rapidly in my tank when I dosed silicate.

 

[kecked]

Ok so I have giant diatom bloom out of the blue in a two year old reef. It went away for a day when I added carbon. Phosphates are zero as are nitrates. I stopped using gfo when this happened and still no phosphate detected. It’s ugly but is it really a problem? I reduced my lighting in half. Only softies in the Tank other than porcillia which are prolific weeds in my take. Buds everywhere. All my star polyps closed up just before the outbreak. Thoughts?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Diatoms are not generally a problem if they are truly diatoms and not something else like dinos.

When you say you added carbon, what does that mean?

 

[reeferfoxx]

Ok so I have giant diatom bloom out of the blue in a two year old reef. It went away for a day when I added carbon. Phosphates are zero as are nitrates. I stopped using gfo when this happened and still no phosphate detected. It’s ugly but is it really a problem? I reduced my lighting in half. Only softies in the Tank other than porcillia which are prolific weeds in my take. Buds everywhere. All my star polyps closed up just before the outbreak. Thoughts?

It is Dinoflagellates not diatoms.

If it were diatoms your snails and copepods would take care of it. Not to mention it's rare for a 2 year old tank to go through another bloom.

 

[kecked]

Your right and after two doses of chemiclean they are still there. Cleared up over night 100% each time but by end of day totally back. Did 50%water change cleaned one inch deep sand bed. It’s just decorative. Sucked off rocks and I comes back. Help!

Oh add huge gfo and carbon and a little lanthinium today. Nitrates zero phosphates were always non detect via Hanna. Alk 8 ph8.2 ish. Calcium 400 mag 1350.

Skimmer runs over from foam even when raised up. Figure another water change in a few days. I use ro di

Coarse filter two carbons ro double di. 111 inlet 0 tds out. Phosphate inlet 4.2 ppm. None seem on ro but since ph is wacky in straight ro I doubt the test kit is right. Still don’t expect any after six stages.

I changed allfiters just in case.

5noughts?

 

[reeferfoxx]

Your right and after two doses of chemiclean they are still there. Cleared up over night 100% each time but by end of day totally back. Did 50%water change cleaned one inch deep sand bed. It’s just decorative. Sucked off rocks and I comes back. Help!

Oh add huge gfo and carbon and a little lanthinium today. Nitrates zero phosphates were always non detect via Hanna. Alk 8 ph8.2 ish. Calcium 400 mag 1350.

Skimmer runs over from foam even when raised up. Figure another water change in a few days. I use ro di

Coarse filter two carbons ro double di. 111 inlet 0 tds out. Phosphate inlet 4.2 ppm. None seem on ro but since ph is wacky in straight ro I doubt the test kit is right. Still don’t expect any after six stages.

I changed allfiters just in case.

5noughts?

Old school conventional methods of reducing no3 and po4 are outdated unless excessive nutrients triggered the dino bloom. In that case,, microscope ID would benefit others for future reference.

Remove all po4 export media,, no lanthinum chloride, no no3 reductions or bio-media,, and no large water changes. Find a water change schedule and stick to it. Consider a UV sterilizer, skimmer,, and mechanical filtration only.
Target no3 5-10ppm and po4 0.8-o.10ppm.

Also read through the first post of this thread and post any updates or questions.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellates-–-are-you-tired-of-battling-altogether.293318/

 

[kecked]

Wow I’m really out of the loop on what’s up today. I’ve staved the hell out of my reef on purpose. That thread was really helpful. I both cyano and Dino’s in about equal amounts. I’ll try manual removal with increase p and n and lots of carbon. Got uv unit on the way. Funny thing is my smaller 29 always ran 5-10n and .1-.2 p and was really health. I was also dosing ethanol once a week to bring the n down when it hit 10ppm. Always dropped to 2-3 and stayed there till it raised to 10 over a week or two.

Thank you for your help it was very kind of you.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Wow I’m really out of the loop on what’s up today. I’ve staved the hell out of my reef on purpose. That thread was really helpful. I both cyano and Dino’s in about equal amounts. I’ll try manual removal with increase p and n and lots of carbon. Got uv unit on the way. Funny thing is my smaller 29 always ran 5-10n and .1-.2 p and was really health. I was also dosing ethanol once a week to bring the n down when it hit 10ppm. Always dropped to 2-3 and stayed there till it raised to 10 over a week or two.

Thank you for your help it was very kind of you.

No problem. Good luck with the battle!

 

[kecked]

Getting better. Lights to 25%. Lots of carbon. Added tims one and only. Some Dino but 75% better.

ULN. Doesn’t work for me it seems.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Getting better. Lights to 25%. Lots of carbon. Added tims one and only. Some Dino but 75% better.

ULN. Doesn’t work for me it seems.

It can be a fine line. It takes 6 months to year to recover from dinos. Biologically, the tank will have to rebuild what was lost. Keep in mind that organic phosphates can't be tested like orthophosphates. It would take expensive lab grade testing to see results. So as long as you are consistently feeding the tank or at a least a ULN hungry tank a wide array of foods twice a day, you can achieve ULN. It's not impossible, just not always done correctly.

 

[kecked]

Ok so I got my nitrate up to 8ppm in one day! Zero phosphate. So adding carbon would not make sense. Boil tap and add it for phosphates? Trying to get ratio back in line so I can keep the new bacteria happy.
Lights are 25%. And Dino’s look much much better. Even sand is clearing up. Might turn skimmer back on.

 

[reeferfoxx]

I wouldn't add tap water to the tank. Just get a bottle of Seachems Phosphorus for phosphates. It's just potassium phosphate. I also wouldn't adjust lighting. These little changes don't do any good. Once you go back to your normal parameters, you'll see dinos again.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Remove all po4 export media,, no lanthinum chloride, no no3 reductions or bio-media,, and no large water changes. Find a water change schedule and stick to it. Consider a UV sterilizer, skimmer,, and mechanical filtration only.
Target no3 5-10ppm and po4 0.8-o.10ppm.

Also read through the first post of this thread and post any updates or questions.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellates-–-are-you-tired-of-battling-altogether.293318/

 

[kecked]

I wonder if a touch of Miracle grow would work. I tried it so I’ll let you know. When I say a touch I mean a couple grains in a 75 gallon. Doubt you could measure it. 8% phos 24% urea. If this doesn’t do anything I’ll try a little more. Thinking making a solution that has the right ratio of carbon and phos. I get plenty nitrogen. Bet that’s what POx-NOx is. Ps my Dino problem start immediately after starting to use that product. Had been using ethanol for years with no issue.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I wonder if a touch of Miracle grow would work. I tried it so I’ll let you know. When I say a touch I mean a couple grains in a 75 gallon. Doubt you could measure it. 8% phos 24% urea. If this doesn’t do anything I’ll try a little more. Thinking making a solution that has the right ratio of carbon and phos. I get plenty nitrogen. Bet that’s what POx-NOx is. Ps my Dino problem start immediately after starting to use that product. Had been using ethanol for years with no issue.

I think it would be a better idea to use a purified N and P source. Some Miracle grow products add copper and other metals.

 

[Cnidoblast]

Here are amazon links for possible sources of N and P that are cheap and not subject to regulations:
https://www.amazon.com/Tetrasodium-Pyrophosphate-TSPP-Lb-Pack/dp/B00QSHZYLY
https://www.amazon.com/Urea-NH2-46-0-0-Fertilizer-Pound/dp/B007OAYGEA/

 

[mcarroll]

I wonder if a touch of Miracle grow would work.

I'm with Randy....not to knock Miracle Grow, but in our context we really do have some discreet objectives for these nutrients. So something simple like purified potassium nitrate and potassium phosphate really is better.

 

[ratkas]

Well, now I am really puzzled. Tested my RODI water and my tank with the silicate test kit from Salifert and levels are very low. I went ahead and installed the MaxCap DI and SilicaBuster anyways. Running BRS high capacity GFO. I also purchased some Purigen and placed that in the sump under high flow. Any thoughts as to how this could be getting in my system? Is Silicon different than Silicate? Thanks again for everyone’s insight on this.

I'm in the same situation as you've described in this post and waiting on a Silicate test kit to come in. I planned to test freshly made RODI water, stored RODI water, and my tank water. I store my RODI water in old salt buckets (Red Sea Coral Pro - Black buckets and one general use Home Depot Orange bucket). I rotate the water used for water changes and ATO so its never more 4-6 weeks old. My theory is that storage buckets could be a source of contamination if they're leaching silicates. Did you check you're stored RODI water?

 

[tmb22]

I'm in the same situation as you've described in this post and waiting on a Silicate test kit to come in. I planned to test freshly made RODI water, stored RODI water, and my tank water. I store my RODI water in old salt buckets (Red Sea Coral Pro - Black buckets and one general use Home Depot Orange bucket). I rotate the water used for water changes and ATO so its never more 4-6 weeks old. My theory is that storage buckets could be a source of contamination if they're leaching silicates. Did you check you're stored RODI water?

I know this thread is really old, but what I found out is that my BRS dry rock was leaching silicates slowly into the water due to me only just curing it in plain old salt water for 3 months. I should have done more to the rock in hindsight. Regardless, I think it took a total of about a year for the rock to completely release all of its silicates. After that, I haven't had silicates in the system, double-checked with another Triton test. So if you have dry rock in your system, that may be the culprit. To be honest, I doubt your buckets are the cause of the silicate issue.

Also, the salifert silicate test kit didn't read any silicate in my system even after the Triton test revealed I had a high level, so I'd take whatever result you get from a home test with a grain of salt.

 

[Volcmreefer]

I think my BRS Pukani rock might be doing the same. I bought a Spectrapure SilicaBuster canister for my RODI filter and it seems to be doing an ok job but I think that I am chasing my tail because my rocks are leachi g phosphate and/or silicates.

Now I do daily 2 gallon water changes and have seen a little bit of improvement.