Reef Discussion

[Uglyman]

I have been dosing Silica for 18 months now and I have seen significant changes in my population of sponges for the better and I have also found that it can when dosing produce small diatom blooms on the glass which when scrubbed off initiate polyp extension on some corals.

So who else here is dosing Silica and what are your thoughts, experiences and observations?


Little bit of info on the subject http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/1/aafeature1

 

[slin1977]

Mate, you have raised a good idea, when I change zeolite in my reactor, I wipe a bit of the biofilm on the inside of the reactor and feed this to the tank for a turbo boost. The coral love this... I will try clean the biofilm off my glass daily from now to see what happens,
I suspect the coral benefit from this bacteria/ diatom food source however I am not a fan of disturbing established algae spores.

 

[Uglyman]

I have been wondering if the corals do eat the diatoms as they get dispersed into the water column after I clean the glass, I have been dosing 4 drops of silica solution a week and I find if I add one extra drop I get a diatom bloom on my glass and sometimes on the sand. So I think I will be doing a little experiment and add 5 drops each week for the next few months and observe the corals each time I clean the diatoms from the glass.
If after a few months I see improvement in feeding response,growth or colouration in my corals then maybe I will continue with this dosing regime and study this further.

I would like to hear other peoples experience with Silica dosing and maybe I can get more insight into it's effects in other tanks.

 

[slin1977]

I have a salifert silica test kit that I might bring out for a test, I'll post my result up soon.
I was thinking about zeovit sponge power as one of my next purchases, wonder if there is some magic silicates in the sneaky ingredients.

 

[Uglyman]

Cool would be good to know your results, as for ingredients I would say it is just Sodium Silicate Na2SiO3 look up water glass it is what they call it. I have been using Brightwells Sponge Excel at the current dosing rate it should last me 5 years lol and it comes in a nice glass bottle with dropper all for just $9 from the Reef Shop.