Sodium Silicate

[vax1]

I was wondering if sodium silicate is a good idea while dealing with procentrum dinoflagellates?

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[geologeek]

I was wondering if sodium silicate is a good idea while dealing with procentrum dinoflagellates?

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It can help to spur on diatoms as a competitor.

What are your other tank parameters? Have you got phosphate and nitrate under control?

 

[vax1]

Nitrate is about 15 and phosphate 0.12

 

[geologeek]

Nitrate is about 15 and phosphate 0.12

Ok, just keep an eye on them and make sure not to bottom then out.

Do you have a UV? If so you might be able to force them into the water column and thus be dealt with by the UV by a period of black out.

Also do you have any carbon on the system? These can produce toxins and a small amount of carbon might help mitigate their impact.

 

[vax1]

No I don’t have UV but do have carbon

 

[geologeek]

Any corals that would be impacted by a protracted blackout? Could you do a week long blackout to reduce their numbers and let the diatoms battle out for the space?

 

[vax1]

3 fish and 1 small piece of coral
Will I need to do something to get rid of the diatoms after

 

[geologeek]

3 fish and 1 small piece of coral
Will I need to do something to get rid of the diatoms after

Not overly, any dead will tend to get skimmed out or picked up via cleaning the sand etc.

Also a proactive way you could deal with these would be to siphon your sand into the sump/bucket via a micron filter bag so that you are removing the dinoflagellates but returning the water much clearer.

Don't do water change as you will likely just spur on more Dino's and be chasing your tail.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Some folks do have success dosing silicate for dinos in general and there's little drawback, IMO.