Lunker December 14, 2008 December 14, 2008 My tank is 4 1/2 months old. I have used a 5 stage RO/DI water unit from the beginning with regular water changes. The sand was Caribsea Aragonite and sand. I have been sending water samples to Aquarium Water Testing.com (AWT) for the past 4 months. All major readings (14 specific test) from these test are good except for Silica. Recommended exceptable readings are suggested to be between 0.000 and 0.500 mg/L. My Si AWT results for the last 4 months were recorded as hi. month 1) 0.8 month 2) 1.1 month 3) 0.7 month 4) 1.3 So last month I purchased a Carbolitreactor and fill the unit using Rowa-Phos in hopes of recuding the Silica. I filled about 1/3 of the reactor with the phos medium, ran RO/DI water through it a couple of times in order to reduce the dark coloring of the Rowa-Phos. I put the unit in my sump unsing a Maxijet 1200. The unit ran for about two weeks prior to sending my water sample and receiving test number 4. Yesterday, I purchased a Salifert Si test kit. I wanted to see were the Silica could be originating from. So I tested both fresh RO/DI water and my display tank. To my surprise, neither test indicated any Si. I was very meticulous on following the test method and times of the Salifert test. Any suggestions or advice??
zygote2k December 14, 2008 December 14, 2008 Is there a problem in your tank? If so, can it be traced to Silicates? If not, then what difference does it make?
rrubberbandman December 14, 2008 December 14, 2008 I thought someone was saying hi to silica content. oh goofy me
jamesbuf December 14, 2008 December 14, 2008 I thought the two main sources of silica were from either having a silica based sand in your system or by not getting all of the silica out of your tap water. When was the last time you changed your DI resin???
Lunker December 14, 2008 Author December 14, 2008 I thought the two main sources of silica were from either having a silica based sand in your system or by not getting all of the silica out of your tap water. When was the last time you changed your DI resin??? I still have the original RO/DI filters, 4 months of use. My TDS readings are "0". My puzzlement is that the Salifert readings for both my RO/DI and DT are negligable but the lab test for my DT are 1.3 mg/L for Silica.
lancer99 December 14, 2008 December 14, 2008 Lunker, I'm sure that you've read that AWT's tests are not as reliable as one would hope.... And I'll second Zygote, do you actually have a problem in your tank? Diatom blooms are said to be caused by excess silica...is that what you're seeing? -R
Lunker December 14, 2008 Author December 14, 2008 Lunker, I'm sure that you've read that AWT's tests are not as reliable as one would hope.... And I'll second Zygote, do you actually have a problem in your tank? Diatom blooms are said to be caused by excess silica...is that what you're seeing? -R My tank hasn't had any appearance of any sort of brown algea (diatom Bloom). If I have been experiecing some sort of diatom bloom, I guess that I'm to green to the hobby to notice. I do have more green hair algea in spots, that I would like but that can probably be attributed to the fact that I don't have any fish (Blennies or Tangs ect) in the DT, only cleanup crews. I decided a month ago to rid the tank of any possible "ich". I took what few fish that I did have and have isolated them from the DT into a hyposalinity QT tank. I hope to restock within a couple of weeks. I have suspected that maybe I don't really have a problem, but the consistent 4 month results has prompted me to at least ask questions and for advice. I have heard once something to the effect that maybe AWT is to be questioned. As a newbie, I felt that having them test my water for the first year amounted to a little insurance of sort. thanks
Buucca December 15, 2008 December 15, 2008 My tank hasn't had any appearance of any sort of brown algea (diatom Bloom). If I have been experiecing some sort of diatom bloom, I guess that I'm to green to the hobby to notice. I do have more green hair algea in spots, that I would like but that can probably be attributed to the fact that I don't have any fish (Blennies or Tangs ect) in the DT, only cleanup crews. I decided a month ago to rid the tank of any possible "ich". I took what few fish that I did have and have isolated them from the DT into a hyposalinity QT tank. I hope to restock within a couple of weeks. I have suspected that maybe I don't really have a problem, but the consistent 4 month results has prompted me to at least ask questions and for advice. I have heard once something to the effect that maybe AWT is to be questioned. As a newbie, I felt that having them test my water for the first year amounted to a little insurance of sort. thanks What water are they testing, your source water or your ro/di water? I'd be curious to know.
Lunker December 15, 2008 Author December 15, 2008 What water are they testing, your source water or your ro/di water? I'd be curious to know. Bill, The water that they are testing is from my Display Tank. Ron
Highland Reefer December 15, 2008 December 15, 2008 I agree with Lancer99. This company does not have good quality test equipment in my opinion. I have seen many test results from this company that states they have high silica content.
Highland Reefer December 15, 2008 December 15, 2008 From what I have heard, Lab Aquatics is much better: http://www.labaquatics.com/
Lunker December 15, 2008 Author December 15, 2008 From what I have heard, Lab Aquatics is much better: http://www.labaquatics.com/ Thanks Cliff, It would be interesting to send them a sample at the same time next month. I'll check labaquatics out.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now