Silicate Dosing for Reef Tanks

[Miami Reef]

Well thought out and written article, @Miami Reef. Nicely done!

Thank you.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

it was flashing "0.90" which i think it means over its readable range thats where i took a water sample to the LFS and it was around 0.1ppm

I think that leaves open the question of which, if either, was accurate. It may be that the silicate you used has some phosphate in it.

 

[Rich Klein]

Not sure of that. What do they outcompete for?

I also beat Dinos by dosing silicate, nitrate , and phosphate until GHA grew. Since then (8 years ago) I have been careful to keep nitrates and phosphates at healthy levels.

 

[lesismore]

Can I please ask the brilliant minds here, when dosing silicates and promoting diatom growth, should I be dosing some extra trace elements or coral food/supplements as my monitora cap has gotten paler despite maintaining the same water parameters. My alk is 8.6, calcium is 420, magnesium is 350, nitrate is 15.7 and phos is .09. It could be coincidence but I feel things are otherwise consistent. I will see a paused chaeto gro and feeding my corals for the duration I’ve been dosing silicates as I read it’s best not to feed the dinos. Thank you!!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Can I please ask the brilliant minds here, when dosing silicates and promoting diatom growth, should I be dosing some extra trace elements or coral food/supplements as my monitora cap has gotten paler despite maintaining the same water parameters. My alk is 8.6, calcium is 420, magnesium is 350, nitrate is 15.7 and phos is .09. It could be coincidence but I feel things are otherwise consistent. I will see a paused chaeto gro and feeding my corals for the duration I’ve been dosing silicates as I read it’s best not to feed the dinos. Thank you!!

In a dino situation, I’m not actually sure if dosing more trace elements is desirable. It may be to promote the diatoms, but it may also promote the dinos.

If it were me, I’d dose trace as usual, and if you do not usually dose some, I’d try some and see what happens.

 

[lesismore]

In a dino situation, I’m not actually sure if dosing more trace elements is desirable. It may be to promote the diatoms, but it may also promote the dinos.

If it were me, I’d dose trace as usual, and if you do not usually dose some, I’d try some and see what happens.

Thank you as always Randy. I followed your advice and added some trace last night. I do think the monti cap looks a bit better today. It seems less pale to me.

I was surprised how fast the silicates were depleted to .01 on my Hanna. I dosed to 1ppm and within a few days it had virtually disappeared. I redosed to just over 1ppm yesterday and will check out the level tomorrow and redose when needed. My sand bed is looking so much better! It actually looks pretty darn good. I’ve got a healthy dose of diatoms all over my glass and I’m ignoring them until I’m done with this process. Where would I be without you and Reef2reef! Thanks again Randy.

 

[Miami Reef]

I was surprised how fast the silicates were depleted to .01 on my Hanna. I dosed to 1ppm and within a few days it had virtually disappeared. I redosed to just over 1ppm yesterday and will check out the level tomorrow and redose when needed.

There’s nothing wrong with dosing 2 ppm if needed.

 

[lesismore]

There’s nothing wrong with dosing 2 ppm if needed.

Thank you for the tip. That’s really helpful to know.

 

[NeptuneSpear2011]

Silicate feeds diatoms and sponges in reef tanks. Diatoms in particular are good at outcompeting dinos, feeding copepods, and might even feed corals and filter feeders when scraping the glass. Diatoms are also less visible than the standard green film algae they replace.

There is no need to test for silicate because it depletes quickly and the dose I’m suggesting will not accumulate over time. In addition, the dose has absolutely no interference with phosphate test kits. It will not cause false positives.

Here are Amazon links to purchase sodium silicate:

https://a.co/d/9wJqPLJ
https://a.co/d/5KGT7It
Sodium silicate is very thick. It’s not as simple as saying 1 gram of silicate = 1 mL of silicate. I accounted for this by using its density, so pick whatever’s most convenient.

@Miami Reef are we using the entire 4oz bottle mixed w/ 2 cups of RO/DI water sold on Amazon? Does this need to be refrigerated or room temp?

This is great!!!

 

[dvgyfresh]

just ordered a botte
Thank you ! @Miami Reef
Forgive dirty glass , I believe small amount of Dino’s on back glass, trying to finish them off! Lol

 

[Miami Reef]

@Miami Reef are we using the entire 4oz bottle mixed w/ 2 cups of RO/DI water sold on Amazon? Does this need to be refrigerated or room temp?

This is great!!!

Mix the singe 1 ppm dose with some water (about 1-2 cups) prior to adding it to the tank. I didn’t mean to imply that we should dilute the entire stock solution in water.

Mixing it with some water prevents the temporary localized magnesium hydroxide precipitation (cloudy particles) that forms when quickly adding high pH solutions to seawater.

If you dose it in sump with good flow, you don’t need to mix it with water.

 

[Miami Reef]

just ordered a botte
Thank you ! @Miami Reef
Forgive dirty glass , I believe small amount of Dino’s on back glass, trying to finish them off! Lol

Tank looks good!

 

[Random Luminosity]

@Miami Reef , I might have missed it but I didnt see you mention anything about temperature increases in the dino fight. whats your thoughts on that? Ive increased my temp to 82.5-83 for the past week as part of the fight but I havent really seen any effect one way or another

 

[jonelder68]

@Miami Reef , I might have missed it but I didnt see you mention anything about temperature increases in the dino fight. whats your thoughts on that? Ive increased my temp to 82.5-83 for the past week as part of the fight but I havent really seen any effect one way or another

Miami Reef unfortunately passed away two weeks ago

 

[jonelder68]

@Miami Reef , I might have missed it but I didnt see you mention anything about temperature increases in the dino fight. whats your thoughts on that? Ive increased my temp to 82.5-83 for the past week as part of the fight but I havent really seen any effect one way or another

I can try and help though. Miami was my coach . I’ve battled three rounds of Dino’s now. Finally got them beat! Now getting GHA but it’s much easier to deal with.

To answer your question some people claim the that increasing temp has worked. I believe we would both state we’re unsure of its effect.

I finally beat Dino’s with large UV plumbed directly in display tank, Dosing silicates, and then doing a three day lights off. Mine were mainly in the sand and wouldn’t enter the water column at night. With the blackout they’ve must of decide to entire the water column looking for a new home and uv got them. After lights back on had a two week diatom bloom. Stopped dosing silicates with lights on. After the diatoms faded out tank was free of both per sample under microscope. From them dying off my nitrate spiked to 50-55ppm. Now trying to correct that as GHA is growing. But my cuc is keeping it manageable.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

@Miami Reef , I might have missed it but I didnt see you mention anything about temperature increases in the dino fight. whats your thoughts on that? Ive increased my temp to 82.5-83 for the past week as part of the fight but I havent really seen any effect one way or another

I personally would not boost temps, even if it helped, unless temp was on the low side to begin with. Excessive temps are a clear stressor for wild corals.

 

[Jamie9]

Agree diatom filters are awesome! They cleared my 1 & 2 rounds of Dino’s very quickly. But depends on which type of Dino’s you have. So far a diatom filter has done nothing for third round of Dino’s specifically Prorocentrum Dino’s. It’s been a two month battle so far. I’ve been trying treatments in stages to see what has the biggest effect. So far diatom filters and manual removal has changed nothing. This is while also running UV sterilizer. Two weeks ago started dosing silicates. This last week the Dino’s have slowly been withering down. I can finally see patches of sand popping through. So silicates are definitely working. Before seeing silicates being successful I ordered the UV sand sweeper. To test its effectiveness I’ve started using it on one side/half of the tank. So we’ll see how it compares to the other side with silicate dosing.

Rounds 1-2 with manual removal and constant turkey basting while running a marineland magnum filter. Though those Dino’s would disappear at night and enter the water column so catching and removing was highly effective.

12-24 hours of running and filter would be clogged. But Dino’s were gone in 5-7 days. Wish prorocentrum was as easy to rid off.

Mind sharing what filter/pump setup you use with that cartridge? Thanks!

 

[jonelder68]

Mind sharing what filter/pump setup you use with that cartridge? Thanks!

It’s just a marineland magnum internal canister filter. They’re cheap and work awesome! You can get a multi pack of cartridge filters off amazon as well.

 

[Charley75]

Silicate feeds diatoms and sponges in reef tanks. Diatoms in particular are good at outcompeting dinos, feeding copepods, and might even feed corals and filter feeders when scraping the glass. Diatoms are also less visible than the standard green film algae they replace.

There is no need to test for silicate because it depletes quickly and the dose I’m suggesting will not accumulate over time. In addition, the dose has absolutely no interference with phosphate test kits. It will not cause false positives.

Here are Amazon links to purchase sodium silicate:

https://a.co/d/9wJqPLJ
https://a.co/d/5KGT7It
Sodium silicate is very thick. It’s not as simple as saying 1 gram of silicate = 1 mL of silicate. I accounted for this by using its density, so pick whatever’s most convenient.

Can you just mix with tank water instead of RO/DI?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Can you just mix with tank water instead of RO/DI?

I would not. Calcium and magnesium silicate and calcium carbonate can all precipitate.