Silicates Nightmare !!!

[LMyers]

So i have an aquarium that's been running for almost 4 years now and since a few months in we noticed there was a silicate issue, We used to get our RO from someone who maintained the tank but we bought a brand new RO machine that runs off a softner. We tested this with an ICP and came back to having 0 silicates in. We initially thought the rock work behind the tank was potentially falling into the tank but we moved the tank after a year and didnt change anything.

We kept on top of it by using silicate remover but as soon as we removed it the levels would spike to 500+ sometimes even reaching in the 800-900 levels. We do monthly ICPs so we can see these level fluctuate depending on when the silicate remover expires ect.

Equipment used:
2x Gen 4 radions
2x MP40
Ultra Reef Skimmer
Vectra M2
Alkatronic
Dosetronic which is running triton and now nopox since removing the fuge
Clarisea 5000

We also had an ai on our fuge that went a bit rusty so we replaced it but still didn't change the silicate levels so i removed all the chaeto / fuge to clean the sump incase something had fell in which was rusting. I've inspected all the power heads / return pump / skimmers ect and cant find any rusting so have come to a dead end!

Also worth knowing i don't do any water changes to this tank as we replace all the micro elements with triton.

Im struggling to keep any corals

 

[Reefer Matt]

Hello! What size tank is this?

 

[jda]

How old is this tank? In the history of reefing, nearly nobody has had success without changing water for more than a few years... it just goes bad after a while. Too many of the no water change folks do actually change a large amount water a few times a year, or at least when they have unknown issues like this... or they are like 12 months in and have not reached that critical timeline yet. There are just too many things that we cannot test or account for that need removed. Every DSR person that I know changes water, they just don't do it regularly. You might consider spending some of that ICP testing money on some salt - there is no substitute for the rebooting ability of water changes.

If you think that it is just silicates, GFO removes them very well.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Why are you concerned about silicate? Unless you have problematic levels of diatoms, which I do not see mentioned it's a nonissue. IMO.

 

[LMyers]

its about 600 ltrs.

So the first year of the tank running we was doing 75 liter water changes every week but i noticed the levels were high from the ICPs and couldn't find anything rusting so thought it was coming from the RO. We tested that but come back to 0 but i stopped the water changes for a few months to see if the numbers dropped but it rised up by alot, We then ended up buying our own RODI unit which is being fed off a water softer and still no changes.

We changed the Phosphate remover to test if it was that but again no changes.

 

[DanyL]

While GFO and other binding media will remove silicates, as well as the diatoms that consume it - I highly recommend moving back to weekly water change routine.
It’s a fine method to export silicates, as well as many other unwanted elements that can accumulate over time.

Don’t buy into the “No water change” dream, like jda already mentioned, they too end up doing them, and often times struggle with issues similar to yours after awhile.

Every DSR person that I know changes water, they just don't do it regularly.

They just don’t tend to tell about it*

 

[jda]

Has this high silica reading been verified by a few different types of tests? Both the tank and the RODI? There are membranes that do a better job with silica like Axeon.

AXEON 150GPD Membrane

AXEON 150GPD Membrane - Reef Tank owners need a dependable dealer of NSF Certified Parts for their saltwater aquarium zero tds water changes. We always have a huge inventory. Dependable parts since 1982! We wholesale. Please let us know if you have any question!

airwaterice.com

I have no idea how they could get that high without dosing something with lots of silica in it.

 

[LMyers]

Has this high silica reading been verified by a few different types of tests? Both the tank and the RODI? There are membranes that do a better job with silica like Axeon.

AXEON 150GPD Membrane

AXEON 150GPD Membrane - Reef Tank owners need a dependable dealer of NSF Certified Parts for their saltwater aquarium zero tds water changes. We always have a huge inventory. Dependable parts since 1982! We wholesale. Please let us know if you have any question!

airwaterice.com

I have no idea how they could get that high without dosing something with lots of silica in it.

The only thing i dose on the tank is triton core 7 and the micro elements the ICP advises us on. Also have an alkatronic that puts the waste water back into the tank but not sure if it could come from any off these.

The silica remover we use dose remove it by quite a bit maybe down to 300 then once removed within 2 weeks it shoots right back upto about 600-800

 

[DanyL]

The only thing i dose on the tank is triton core 7 and the micro elements the ICP advises us on. Also have an alkatronic that puts the waste water back into the tank but not sure if it could come from any off these.

I assume Triton supplements would be quite clean, and the problem would’ve been much more wide spread if it was indeed the cause here.

However, not so many folks return their Alkatronic waste back into their system.
They likely use HCL acid for the titration, and it is possible that it contains some traces of silicates in it.

That being said - it is indeed a large amounts of silicates, so not sure it is the root cause here. You could potentially divert from returning the waste back to the tank for awhile and retest to see if there was an improvement or not, it wouldn’t hurt to know this.

Other than this - could maybe be a bad batch of salt? Maybe trace element leftovers from dosing phyto/rotifers/other cultured planton?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The only thing i dose on the tank is triton core 7 and the micro elements the ICP advises us on. Also have an alkatronic that puts the waste water back into the tank but not sure if it could come from any off these.

The silica remover we use dose remove it by quite a bit maybe down to 300 then once removed within 2 weeks it shoots right back upto about 600-800

I still haven't heard why you are concerned about it. It might not even be silicate/SiO2.

Don't "fix" things just because an ICP company says to. They don't even know what chemical it might be.