So i have an aquarium that's been running for almost 4 years now and since a few months in we noticed there was a silicate issue, We used to get our RO from someone who maintained the tank but we bought a brand new RO machine that runs off a softner. We tested this with an ICP and came back to having 0 silicates in. We initially thought the rock work behind the tank was potentially falling into the tank but we moved the tank after a year and didnt change anything.
We kept on top of it by using silicate remover but as soon as we removed it the levels would spike to 500+ sometimes even reaching in the 800-900 levels. We do monthly ICPs so we can see these level fluctuate depending on when the silicate remover expires ect.
Equipment used:
2x Gen 4 radions
2x MP40
Ultra Reef Skimmer
Vectra M2
Alkatronic
Dosetronic which is running triton and now nopox since removing the fuge
Clarisea 5000
We also had an ai on our fuge that went a bit rusty so we replaced it but still didn't change the silicate levels so i removed all the chaeto / fuge to clean the sump incase something had fell in which was rusting. I've inspected all the power heads / return pump / skimmers ect and cant find any rusting so have come to a dead end!
Also worth knowing i don't do any water changes to this tank as we replace all the micro elements with triton.
Im struggling to keep any corals
We kept on top of it by using silicate remover but as soon as we removed it the levels would spike to 500+ sometimes even reaching in the 800-900 levels. We do monthly ICPs so we can see these level fluctuate depending on when the silicate remover expires ect.
Equipment used:
2x Gen 4 radions
2x MP40
Ultra Reef Skimmer
Vectra M2
Alkatronic
Dosetronic which is running triton and now nopox since removing the fuge
Clarisea 5000
We also had an ai on our fuge that went a bit rusty so we replaced it but still didn't change the silicate levels so i removed all the chaeto / fuge to clean the sump incase something had fell in which was rusting. I've inspected all the power heads / return pump / skimmers ect and cant find any rusting so have come to a dead end!
Also worth knowing i don't do any water changes to this tank as we replace all the micro elements with triton.
Im struggling to keep any corals