how to remove silica in the tank ?
- Thread starter chercm
- Start date
incloud
New member
All I'm saying is wouldn't it be easier to not add silicates in the first place, which would be an effective way of eliminating the problem before it exists. Cheap? No such thing in this hobby and anyone concerned about cost is in for a rude awakening. My point is RO is not cutting it alone so I am looking for an additional filtration process for my water source to make silicate free water changes possible. Water changes are supposed to benefit the system and my circumstances are not beneficial. Each water change is making my glass get covered in brown algae/diatoms so obviously my water is the problem.
I understand what GFO, RO, Carbon, and Export do but I am not a water filtration expert and like the OP I am looking beyond what every forum topic on this matter points to and actually find a solution to my water conditions. My thought is I am not taking care of rock, coral, or fish for that matter. I am primarily doing all I do in this hobby to maintain water conditions. I'm speaking with the water department on Monday and will find out exactly what the issue is with my water source. When I get the answer I will post back with my solution in hopes to help someone else with difficult source water causing the case in point. Thanks for your feedback!
incloud
New member
Problem is I have replaced all of my RO/DI and my water reads 0 TLS. I have even gone as far as running RO through GFO and Carbon prior to mixing saltwater and still every water change brings back diatoms. I just integrated a 170 gallon sump with 24 he light so algae in the sump should overpower my display. In a perfect world.
https://www.amazon.com/SpectraPure-SilicaBuster-Super-DI-Cartridge/dp/B009139YM2
Problem solved going in. With water changes it will dilute out in the DT.
Problem solved going in. With water changes it will dilute out in the DT.
Are you sure that you are seeing diatoms? Snails like Trochus should be happy to eat diatoms. You could work on some form of nutrient control, I guess. Diatoms need phosphate and fixed nitrogen to grow, for example.
incloud
New member
I am running silica buster cartridge as of now. I've cut my lighting back to mainly blues 8 hrs. lowered whites to 1 and 4 percent for 4 hours divided and it has helped a lot. My thing is that I just put my tank back up about 4 months ago and before that it was up for almost 7 years. The whole 7 years I pretty much had to clean the glass daily for it to look appealing. Not happening again and I'll build until it stops. System is coming along good and I believe 170 gallon sump for a 65 gallon display should be able to cure algae problems in the long run. Haven't made a video lately but here's when I first fired it up a few weeks ago.
https://youtu.be/g063ieZ4Y6s
incloud
New member
I'm talking with my water department Monday to have them test my water.
Dsekula
Member
Silicates are naturally found in water, many different phosphate "removing" filtration materials will bind them with phosphates. Once you bind them you must "catch" the silicates in a filter material. This could be accomplished with a substance like gfo and filter paper in the effluent of the in line filter for an example.
Sent from my E6810 using Tapatalk
Sent from my E6810 using Tapatalk
Dsekula
Member
Just an fyi, as a water operator, if you call the water department they may or may not test your water since silicates arnt regulated in most places. If they do you will most likely pay a decent fee for this. Your best bet is to call up a local lab that is certified for water analysis and just have the test run.
Just some insight from the person answering the phone call
Sent from my E6810 using Tapatalk
Just some insight from the person answering the phone call
Sent from my E6810 using Tapatalk
incloud
New member
Just an fyi, as a water operator, if you call the water department they may or may not test your water since silicates arnt regulated in most places. If they do you will most likely pay a decent fee for this. Your best bet is to call up a local lab that is certified for water analysis and just have the test run.
Just some insight from the person answering the phone call
Sent from my E6810 using Tapatalk
Thanks for the heads up. I have a friend who works for the city so I'll see what he can find out.
Dsekula
Member
The specific person you would want to speak with is your licensed water operator. If your lucky someone else might have half a clue what goes on with your water but ime usually they don't. The water operator is the person legally responsible to ensure you have quality water if they don't the state can and will revoke their license. If you miss one half credit hour by a day for continuing education they revoke it and you have to sit the boards again, it's something the state and feds don't mess around with. My point is that person absolutely has to be responsible for quality and information, it's what their paied to do. If you can get in contact, that's the person you want. That's who you want your friend to put you in contact with. If it's a big plant there may be more than one licensed operator but there always has to be one specic lead operator in charge of process control decisions.
Out of curiosity, what is your po4 out of the tap? They could be adding an ortho-polyphpsphate for squstration of metals like iron or mangnese or just for corrosion control. I've seen these run up to 8.00ppm at tap and that could absolutely use up your filter within a few (10-20) gallons if your using one of those little aquarium units.
Sent from my E6810 using Tapatalk
Out of curiosity, what is your po4 out of the tap? They could be adding an ortho-polyphpsphate for squstration of metals like iron or mangnese or just for corrosion control. I've seen these run up to 8.00ppm at tap and that could absolutely use up your filter within a few (10-20) gallons if your using one of those little aquarium units.
Sent from my E6810 using Tapatalk
Dsekula
Member
Also, looking back I don't see the age of your system. You are aware that even with perfect water silicates and phosphates could leach back into the system from rock and sand, right? I've had this happen in decreasing levels for up to a year with a new build.
Sent from my E6810 using Tapatalk
incloud
New member
Hard to say what organism is growing on your rock without a microscopic look at it. If it is a diatom reducing silica will help, otherwise if it is an algae, reducing silica will not help.
There is no miracle cure for algae, dinoflagellate & cyanobacteria & diatom pests in a reef tank.
The bottom line is that you want to reduce nitrate, phosphate, dissolved organics and suspended organics. You need to say no to all pests present in your tank and all debris in your tank. Keep a spick and span tank including the sand bed and glass. This will need to be completed often to erradicate these type of pests.
There are a lot of hobbyists in your same position. Reducing your nitrate and phosphate levels to a zero reading will help in getting rid of many type of algae and/or cyanobacterial pests. IME, reducing nitrate and phosphate levels too low can kill or cause problems for many types of soft coral. Running GAC & GFO will all help in reducing the growth of these type of pests. In many cases they will not eradicate the pest even when phosphate and nitrate are extemely low. Vinegar and/or Vodka dosing will help reduce the nitrate and phosphate levels also, but will not necessarily eradicate the pest either.
A common problem is being able to identify your pest to a category correctly: true algae, cyano, dino, bacteria & other assorted pests that look similar. In many cases a micro look at your pest is best to properly ID it to one of these categories.
IMHO, if you are faced with an algal type pest problem, it is best to implement an algae pest control program strategy:
1) Wet skimming with a good quality skimmer. Clean your skimmer cup at least once per week.
2) Reduce your nitrates and phosphates to a zero reading using the hobby grade test kits. See Randy's articles regarding this:
Phosphate and the Reef Aquarium
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/rhf/index.php
Nitrate in the Reef Aquarium
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/august2003/chem.htm
3) Proper lighting. I find that the higher wavelength bulbs are less conducive to algae growth. I now run 20,000 K bulbs from using 10,000 K bulbs.
4) Proper day length is a good thing also. I would not run your lights for more than 12 hrs total. Keep in mind that light entering from a window nearby is added to this figure.
5) Running GAC is a good practice in my book. It will help reduce the total dissolved organic carbons in your tank water and this is a food source.
6) Proper 30% per month total water changes will help export the DOC as well as some of the pests in the water column. It will help maintain the micro-nutrients as well.
7) Physical removal of the pest by hand, scrubbing and siphoning is important as well. If the amount of pest in your aquarium is overwhelming, perhaps dealing with one section at a time is a better idea.
8) Proper water circulation in your tank to prevent dead zones. When dealing with cyanobacteria pests increasing the flow where it grows seems to help.
9) Use RODI water for all top-off, salt mixing, additive mixes... etc.
10) Dosing iron may have benefits for macro-algae, but if you are experiencing algae pest problems than I would stop dosing it as it can add to the problem in many cases.
11) If you are dosing other supplements such as vitamins, amino acids, or others that contain a mix of supplements other than the basic alk., calcium and magnesium, I would stop these until you gain control of your pest. This includes many of the store bought products with unknown ingredients. Dosing Vodka or vinegar to reduce your nitrates and phosphates would be an exception in my opinion.
12) Proper feeding habits. This can be the number one problem when trying to reduce your nitrate and phosphate levels. Use low phosphate fish foods.
13) IMHO, lighted refugiums may be a problem when trying to deal with an algae type pest problem. They are wonderful when it comes to reducing nitrates and phosphates. However, the light over most refugiums is conducive to the microalgae type pests. If the refugium becomes infested with a microalgae pest, I would clean it throughly of all pests as best as possible, remove the macro and turn off the lights until you gain control of your pest. Re-using the same macroalgae later may serve as a source for re-infestation of your pest.
14) Adding fish and other creatures that will eat your algae pest will help.
15) Running a diatom filter which has been suggested by Boomer, makes a lot of sense to me. It will help remove a lot of organic material in your water column.
16) Keep your sand bed clean if it is a shallow bed weekly by vacuuming it. Lightly vacuume deep sand bed surfaces.
17) Keep your tank glass clean all the way around regularly. Perhaps it will need to be done 2 to three times a week if growth is fast.
18) For some additional thoughts regarding switching an algae based system to a bacterial based system see this thread:
(Using a carbon source with appropriate bacterial dosing may possibly help to push your system to where you want it although this is controversial.)
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1781320
19) There are other items that can be added to this list if others care too share and some of the items listed may be disputed.
You mentioned a diatom filter here. Could you explain or give a link to the thread you speak of. Thanks!
sbreefer
Afflicted Reefer
i too have a high silica problem. starting to get little tube worms that I beleive build thier tubes from silica? i feed rods and mysis. are there foods oout there with lower silicate? did you have luck with the silica buster filert or is plain GFO the answer?
05-17-2021 Ammonia (NH3-4) Good 0.01 0.000 - 0.050 mg/L
05-17-2021 Nitrite (NO2) Good 0.01 0.000 - 0.100 mg/L
05-17-2021 Phosphate (PO4) Good 0.16 0.000 - 0.250 mg/L
05-17-2021 Nitrate (NO3) Good 2.5 0.000 - 25.000 mg/L
05-17-2021 Silica (Sio2-3) High 3.1 0.000 - 0.500 mg/L
05-17-2021 Potassium (K) Good 380 350.000 - 450.000 mg/L
05-17-2021 Boron (B) NA NA 3.000 - 6.000 mg/L
05-17-2021 Molybdenum (Mo) High 0.5 0.000 - 0.300 mg/L
05-17-2021 Strontium (Sr) Good 6.71 5.000 - 12.000 mg/L
05-17-2021 Magnesium (Mg) Good 1239 1100.000 - 1400.000 mg/L
05-17-2021 Iodine (I) Good 0.06 0.030 - 0.090 mg/L
05-17-2021 Copper (Cu) Good 0.04 0.000 - 0.100 mg/L
05-17-2021 Alkalinity (meq/L) Good 2.53 2.500 - 5.000 meq/L
05-17-2021 Iron (Fe) NA NA 0.000 - 0.010 mg/L
05-17-2021 Calcium (Ca) Good 425 350.000 - 450.000 mg/L
05-17-2021 Ammonia (NH3-4) Good 0.01 0.000 - 0.050 mg/L
05-17-2021 Nitrite (NO2) Good 0.01 0.000 - 0.100 mg/L
05-17-2021 Phosphate (PO4) Good 0.16 0.000 - 0.250 mg/L
05-17-2021 Nitrate (NO3) Good 2.5 0.000 - 25.000 mg/L
05-17-2021 Silica (Sio2-3) High 3.1 0.000 - 0.500 mg/L
05-17-2021 Potassium (K) Good 380 350.000 - 450.000 mg/L
05-17-2021 Boron (B) NA NA 3.000 - 6.000 mg/L
05-17-2021 Molybdenum (Mo) High 0.5 0.000 - 0.300 mg/L
05-17-2021 Strontium (Sr) Good 6.71 5.000 - 12.000 mg/L
05-17-2021 Magnesium (Mg) Good 1239 1100.000 - 1400.000 mg/L
05-17-2021 Iodine (I) Good 0.06 0.030 - 0.090 mg/L
05-17-2021 Copper (Cu) Good 0.04 0.000 - 0.100 mg/L
05-17-2021 Alkalinity (meq/L) Good 2.53 2.500 - 5.000 meq/L
05-17-2021 Iron (Fe) NA NA 0.000 - 0.010 mg/L
05-17-2021 Calcium (Ca) Good 425 350.000 - 450.000 mg/L
Similar threads
