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ICP Silicon levels

svreef

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I got my first ICP test results and they say I have 195.2 Silicon. I expected it to be high since I have diatoms. It says it’s roughly 2x their ideal value but has a green check mark - suggesting it’s acceptable.

What do you get for Silicon? Am I looking at the wrong thing wrt diatoms?
 
Rowphse but be super careful and slow,rowphse will suck in the po4 so effectively and u do not want to deal with zero po4.
Why do not you post your icp here so we take a look?
From the icp results page u can click on share report they will give u a link, if you post it here that specific results will be available for viewing..
 
Your diatom can be just a natural stage in your maturity. Indeed silica fuel diatom but eventually diatom go away even with presence of silica to a level..
The important question here is where is the silica coming from. Treating this is more important than worrying about reducing it quickly.
 
Apparently silicon combines with oxygen to produce silica. So the report shows silicon levels. I was confused by this as well.

To be clear, I’m not asking for ways to reduce it. I’m just wondering how it compares with other people’s tests


 
I just got an ICP result back (6/20/20) with Si reading 0.79. Prior ICP tests: 1070 (3/23/2020); and 3572 (1/25/2020)

Hard for me to believe the change. I did this without performing water changes as I have been working on increasing N and P. I'm working out dinoflagellates.

I use Rowaphos at a low-end dose; flow-through media bag method in a filtercup in sump. I've been able to increase PO4, simultaneously.

I haven't until this reply to your post realized the change--hard for me to believe. It evidentially can be corrected fairly fast.


Proof:
ICP Si 2020JUN - Squist.png


ICP Si 2020JAN and 2020 MAR - Squist.png
 
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This hobby makes my head spin. I'm going to fork over to my tank journal to present another hypothesis of my tank's Si reduction. I might not be ready to credit Rowaphos entirely. Including: snails.
BOSS, rowphse remove po4 and silica, as the package state.
So it does 100% remove silica...effectively if I may add
 

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Well, this thread... along with some nasty pond scum slime that's been collecting in the dead spots of my lagoon, has me order one of the ICP tests, the "cheaper" one that's only $30
 
according to their literature

That seems pretty freaking insane considering most probably have in the tenths of a ppm range when they're have problems.
That's why when I introduce someone to rowphos you see me warn many times to not overdose and watch po4 closely. This media is very effective.
In USA people screw their tanks with this media because we are used to more is better concept across the board.
I once exchanged emails with the owner of the company and he was telling me they have problem with US customers cause they keep overdosing and then crash their tank and blame the media..it was funny reading his email actually.
Recently they launched a new media that target silica only to avoid the above. Problem is, it's not available in the US yet
 
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