DI Resin - silicate removal

Quit wanking off in the tank Kurt.....I know Wayne gets you excited,
but enough is enough already, your gonna go blind!

On Sun, 10 Jun 2007 22:01:13 -0400, KurtG
wrote:

Wayne Sallee wrote:
Also is there something not up to par with your algae magnet?

It seems fine. I occasionally clean it and it puts up billows of green
clouds when I clean. I also scrape the glass occasionally, so I don't
think it's the algae magnet.



-------
I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!

Wayne Sallee wrote:
That's incredibly fast for diatoms. With that kind of diatom growth,
your turbos should be doing great. Are the turbos making paths on the
glass? What about the sand and the gravel, how's it looking? What's
causing your turbos to die?

Yes, the turbos definitely make paths on the glass. I think the hermits
killed off a number of turbos for there shells, and then it took me
awhile to figure out that when a turbo lands on it's back, it can't get
up. I now turn them back over when they accidentally get bumped by the
algae magnet. I also feed my giant hermit once a week to keep him from
preying on the turbos.

The sand is okay. There are some brown areas, but between the blenny
and 2 fighting conchs, it gets turned over frequently. I've been slowly
adding more sand because I only have a 1/4" inch in spots. I also have
lots of debris from turbo shells, etc. I've been removing a few of
these whenever I do a water change to keep the sand sifters happy.

I think it's sherlock homes reasoning time: "Eliminate all other
factors, and the one which remains must be the truth."

Phosphate? I'm thinking the phosphate reactor is working well enough to
keep the hair algae under control, but it's still not good enough for
the diatoms.

It seems that the only time the diatoms get knocked back is when I
change media in the phosphate reactor. I get 2-3 days of clear glass,
and then I'm back to the usual. It keeps the hair algae from growing
for about a month. I was thinking that it was silicates, but now
phosphate seems more plausible.

I'll order a more sensitive phosphate test and keep working on the fug.

--Kurt

Kurt are you using a RODI?
"KurtG" wrote in message
news
Wayne Sallee wrote:
That's incredibly fast for diatoms. With that kind of diatom growth, your
turbos should be doing great. Are the turbos making paths on the glass?
What about the sand and the gravel, how's it looking? What's causing your
turbos to die?

Yes, the turbos definitely make paths on the glass. I think the hermits
killed off a number of turbos for there shells, and then it took me awhile
to figure out that when a turbo lands on it's back, it can't get up. I
now turn them back over when they accidentally get bumped by the algae
magnet. I also feed my giant hermit once a week to keep him from preying
on the turbos.

The sand is okay. There are some brown areas, but between the blenny and
2 fighting conchs, it gets turned over frequently. I've been slowly
adding more sand because I only have a 1/4" inch in spots. I also have
lots of debris from turbo shells, etc. I've been removing a few of these
whenever I do a water change to keep the sand sifters happy.

I think it's sherlock homes reasoning time: "Eliminate all other factors,
and the one which remains must be the truth."

Phosphate? I'm thinking the phosphate reactor is working well enough to
keep the hair algae under control, but it's still not good enough for the
diatoms.

It seems that the only time the diatoms get knocked back is when I change
media in the phosphate reactor. I get 2-3 days of clear glass, and then
I'm back to the usual. It keeps the hair algae from growing for about a
month. I was thinking that it was silicates, but now phosphate seems more
plausible.

I'll order a more sensitive phosphate test and keep working on the fug.

--Kurt

Well one thing about it, you have plenty of free
phytoplankton for your filter feeders every time you
clean the glass :-)

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets


KurtG wrote on 6/10/2007 10:01 PM:
Wayne Sallee wrote:
Also is there something not up to par with your algae magnet?

It seems fine. I occasionally clean it and it puts up billows of green
clouds when I clean. I also scrape the glass occasionally, so I don't
think it's the algae magnet.

Peter Pan wrote:
Kurt are you using a RODI?

Definitely. I just changed the resin when TDS reached 6.

Also another thing you can do is to put something in
your canopy to block the light from shining directly
on the front glass.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets


KurtG wrote on 6/11/2007 7:17 AM:
Peter Pan wrote:
Kurt are you using a RODI?

Definitely. I just changed the resin when TDS reached 6.

Wayne Sallee wrote:
Well one thing about it, you have plenty of free phytoplankton for your
filter feeders every time you clean the glass :-)

I don't have too many filter feeders (unless you want to count sponges).

Yea I was counting sponges :-)

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets


KurtG wrote on 6/11/2007 7:23 AM:
Wayne Sallee wrote:
Well one thing about it, you have plenty of free phytoplankton for your
filter feeders every time you clean the glass :-)

I don't have too many filter feeders (unless you want to count sponges).