500 Gallon SPS Dominant Zeovit

[WayneLScott]

diatoms eat/need silicate and will be gone when the silicate goes away. something new had silicate. diatoms are one of the few that aren't really 'water quality' dependant, and then tend to burn out their fuel fairly quickly.

Thanks for the response. So this would happen even if the rocks were acid and bleach cleaned?


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[spieszak]

Well, its all opinion right? I mean, I'm no marine biologist, so there isn't anything about what I type that comes from more than reading and experience. So, let me explain my thinking, and you can take it for what its worth.
Having dealt with them a few times, and read about them waaaaay more than that... the pattern you being to see is that 90% of diatom 'posts' come from new tanks (regardless of plumbing into an existing system, though more rare I think), and that almost all of those post result in short lived blooms that die off quickly. From what I understand the diatoms we usually see in our tanks use silicates to build their cell walls, and we aren't often adding 'free' silicate to our tanks.. and where that free silicate normally comes from is sand and to a lesser extent rock. So, if silicates are more a one time addition, and blooms tend to die off quickly, its kind of logically safe to assume that the ones in new tanks usually have a limiting factor of silicates. (only kind of logically safe because of the complexity of the system we're dealing with..)
If you do a general search as far as 'dissolving silicates' the results you get point to acids, and bleach is a base, not acidic.... so, I think the acid should have gotten the bulk of it, but the bleach wouldn't have done anything. The thing with acid is that it basically takes off a layer of rock, which almost seems that it might make it a little MORE possible to introduce free silicates as its likely the stuff that was in the 'previous' layer was bound. Don't know if that is valid, its another logic type leap.

Regardless, the 'good news' is that the likely hood is that they will use up the silicate in a short time, and if you siphon them out as you can, it shouldn't be an ongoing battle.

 

[WayneLScott]

Well, its all opinion right? I mean, I'm no marine biologist, so there isn't anything about what I type that comes from more than reading and experience. So, let me explain my thinking, and you can take it for what its worth.
Having dealt with them a few times, and read about them waaaaay more than that... the pattern you being to see is that 90% of diatom 'posts' come from new tanks (regardless of plumbing into an existing system, though more rare I think), and that almost all of those post result in short lived blooms that die off quickly. From what I understand the diatoms we usually see in our tanks use silicates to build their cell walls, and we aren't often adding 'free' silicate to our tanks.. and where that free silicate normally comes from is sand and to a lesser extent rock. So, if silicates are more a one time addition, and blooms tend to die off quickly, its kind of logically safe to assume that the ones in new tanks usually have a limiting factor of silicates. (only kind of logically safe because of the complexity of the system we're dealing with..)
If you do a general search as far as 'dissolving silicates' the results you get point to acids, and bleach is a base, not acidic.... so, I think the acid should have gotten the bulk of it, but the bleach wouldn't have done anything. The thing with acid is that it basically takes off a layer of rock, which almost seems that it might make it a little MORE possible to introduce free silicates as its likely the stuff that was in the 'previous' layer was bound. Don't know if that is valid, its another logic type leap.

Regardless, the 'good news' is that the likely hood is that they will use up the silicate in a short time, and if you siphon them out as you can, it shouldn't be an ongoing battle.

Ok that makes more sense now. Thanks sir for the explanation.

 

[spieszak]

i'd prefer Stacey, but if you need go formal, it'll have to be ma'am.

 

[WayneLScott]

i'd prefer Stacey, but if you need go formal, it'll have to be ma'am.

Yes ma'am. Stacey it is.


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[WayneLScott]

3 Month Anniversary

Hope you enjoy a video of my tank. It has been running for 3 months. I am winning the battle with phosphates and nitrates are at 2-5 ppms. I like my nitrates there as they help keep phosphates in line.

 

[seakingaquariums]

fish look really happy!nice work

 

[spieszak]

Really like your scape... Nice caves and overhangs, and plenty of open space. Nice to see how much the rock has colored up and gotten that 'reef tank' feel since the video on the first page.

 

[WayneLScott]

fish look really happy!nice work

Thanks.

Really like your scape... Nice caves and overhangs, and plenty of open space. Nice to see how much the rock has colored up and gotten that 'reef tank' feel since the video on the first page.

Thanks Stacey. I'd have to say the coralline is growing faster than I thought it would.

 

[TangDr]

Thanks for the video. Very nice work. I like the very open scape with lots of places for coral. Are you finding that it is a lot more work running a 500 gallon large tank over a smaller tank?

 

[WayneLScott]

Thanks for the video. Very nice work. I like the very open scape with lots of places for coral. Are you finding that it is a lot more work running a 500 gallon large tank over a smaller tank?

In the beginning yes I did. But compared to my 225 things seem more stable. Only thing different for me is running a calcium reactor and dialing it in. Even when I wasn't dosing it was stable. I thinks it's because of the 50 gallon weekly water changes.



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[WayneLScott]

Pic of the Day.

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[spieszak]

Sorry, all I could think when I saw that was "I've heard of people peeing in a tank to start a cycle, but that one is completely new to me!"

Are there any 'hobby grade' pearlfishes.. because, well... that would be beyond awesome.

 

[N1Husker]

Cool picture, Wayne.

 

[WayneLScott]

Sorry, all I could think when I saw that was "I've heard of people peeing in a tank to start a cycle, but that one is completely new to me!"

Are there any 'hobby grade' pearlfishes.. because, well... that would be beyond awesome.

Naw I don't think so. But that would be pretty awesome if they were available.


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[WayneLScott]

Cool picture, Wayne.

Thanks Husker.


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[TangDr]

Nice! Thanks for the picture.

 

[WayneLScott]

Nice! Thanks for the picture.

You are welcome TD.


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[WayneLScott]

Update

Well some minor problems has been happening. I will try my best to keep them in order.

First off the calcium reactor has been running a while and for the most part the Alkalinity was averaging abou 7.6-7.8 dKh. Well after about 2 -3 WCs the alkalinity was rising about to 8.4 dKh, to 9.0 dKh, and now at 9.8 dKh. I mix my salt to 1.024 salinity and the parameters for that are calcium 390-410 ppm, dKh 7.3-7.7 dKh, and Magnesium at 1190-1210 ppm. Everything measured perfectly except for the dKh. My TDS meter(at least I thought) was reading zero and I had changed the filters approximately 2 months ago. Well I had my RO/DI water tested only to find out my actual TDS was around 65ppm. And on top of that the Alkalinity tested out at 2.5 dKh. Is that even remotely possible for fresh RO/DI water to test out like that.

Secondly, my phosphates which were around .08-.10 ppm(Hanna) were up at .19 ppm. I am going to take into consideration the TDS meter being off. But when I had my freshly mixed saltwater tested the phosphates were measured at .03 ppm. Its low but I also know its suppose to read zero so either my phosphates were higher than I thought and the water changes were bringing them down slowly, or that other reasoning I don't know what to think.

Thirdly, I picked up a few killer deals along the way as you can see in the 3 month anniversary video and in the upcoming video. I picked up a female blonde naso tang, convict tang, and a purple for $75 dollars and also got a 5" yellow belly hippo for $60.

So thats pretty much whats been going on with my tank. Enjoy the frag tank video.

 

[oldsaint]

Well I had my RO/DI water tested only to find out my actual TDS was around 65ppm. And on top of that the Alkalinity tested out at 2.5 dKh. Is that even remotely possible for fresh RO/DI water to test out like that.

Secondly, my phosphates which were around .08-.10 ppm(Hanna) were up at .19 ppm. I am going to take into consideration the TDS meter being off. But when I had my freshly mixed saltwater tested the phosphates were measured at .03 ppm. Its low but I also know its suppose to read zero so either my phosphates were higher than I thought and the water changes were bringing them down slowly, or that other reasoning I don't know what to think.

The alk of DI water is close to 0. Also, I don't think our test kits have the ability to test for alk or pH in DI water.

I'm pretty sure once you get your TDS down to 0 the PO4 will follow.