Randy: sodium silicate and diatoms

[philosophile]

Randy,
I was thinking about dosing sodium silicate to help support diatoms in my tank, ultimately to support a larger population of copepods (tisbe) for a mandarin. I've read an article recently that suggested that tisbe pods, reproduce more rapidly with a good supply of diatoms. Then I came across your article on sodium silicate dosing.

So, I was hoping you could tell me if what I'm thinking makes sense, and recommend a source for sodium silicate.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I still dose it, primarily for sponges, and I think it is a fine plan.

I got if off ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SODIUM-SILI...ltDomain_0&hash=item2c62b2b7e1#ht_1629wt_1197

 

[philosophile]

Thanks Randy!

So if I get a 40% solution, how much should I dilute it by? It wasn't being expressed in Baums like your article goes through. But I guess to get 40% down to 1ppt I'd need to dilute it by 400,000 to get 1ppt? So something like 1 drop of 40% solution will make 211 gallons of additive? (1=drop is about .02 ml multiplied by 400,000, which is 8000ml converted to gallons.) Heh, you weren't kidding that a bottle will last a lifetime.

Your article recommended 17 mM (I wasn't sure what that meant... Is that the next step down after ML?) of 1ppt every 1-2 weeks, I'm assuming that would be for your 120g system. So that would be about 12mM for a 85 total water volume system?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I dose it as is. I pour about 1 mL directly into my sump where the skimmer churns it up a lot. No need to dilute, IMO, but diluting with RO/DI is fine to do.

 

[philosophile]

Awesome! Thanks! I'll post something when I start dosing and share my anecdotal results.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

:thumbsup:

Good luck.