Ah okay makes sense. I will look into this since I like to vacuum my sand periodically. Do you have a recommended gravel vac?
Makes sense, thank you.
I really just wanted a second opinion on the dose. I appreciate the help. I am dealing with some Dino’s. Not the horrible take over the tank kind. Just the brown sand kind. I’m just tired of looking at them after 5 months. Going to hit them with silica, sand UV, and some bacteria dosing combined. Hopefully that will do it
No, I just use the one I have. I did buy a connector at the hardware store for the different sized hoses. Yes, it’s fairly basic but very useful. I don’t go at all deep, just the surface of the sand because I don’t want to remove worms and good stuff only algae and detritus.
How often should this be done?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:
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.
Thanks for the reply Randy, and I’m sorry to hear about Miami.
I recently dosed my tank with %40 sodium silicate, and I’m already starting to see a lot of improvement in the tank in terms of Dino’s.. maybe it’s the combination of things I’m doing, (silicates, raising nutrients, and manually exporting through frequent filter sock changes, oh and microbacter 7)
This is a normal amount of diatoms between coolia dinos. When dosing silicate I would expect a much higher density. You can take a look at post #16 in my microscopy thread. In the video you will see clusters of diatoms that form the brown stains you can see even without using a microscope. When dealing with dinoflagellates you will need a much denser population.
thanks for the response. Yeah I have the Hanna silicate test on the way. Idk how I don’t have crazy diatoms with how long I’ve been dosing. The silicate solution is insanely thick like a gel and when I mix it and pour in the tank it makes a white cloud. Not sure if that sounds right lol.This is a normal amount of diatoms between coolia dinos. When dosing silicate I would expect a much higher density. You can take a look at post #16 in my microscopy thread. In the video you will see clusters of diatoms that form the brown stains you can see even without using a microscope. When dealing with dinoflagellates you will need a much denser population.
In the video below you can see Licmophora sp. diatoms together with Ostreopsis sp. dinoflagellates. This was a pretty normal sight in my tank for quite some time when cleaning the glass with a blade. I don't know how effective diatoms are against Coolia sp., but I assume you need a decent density or there won't be much of an effect at all.
Maybe just get a silicate test kit for reef tanks and check if you are actually dosing anything or if they sold you a water bottle as sodium silicate
Yes, that's how it should look like...
