Kessil

Squist's RSR 250

Might it be possible that Si can be reduced with snails?

Hypothesis: my tank's Si reduction, from 3,500 mg/liter (January 2020) to 0.78 mg/l (June 2020), might have been helped by snails.

I have added a ton of Dwarf Cerith snails; tiny ones that seem to reproduce like mad.

Might they be consuming Si in their shell formation, much like the dinoflagellates that I have been working for months eradicating.

See this tangentially-related article about a person diagnosed with Si poisoning in her lungs due to snail dust from her backyard. I know... a pretty serendipitous search. But not too far of a stretch, is it?


A 70-yr-old woman visited our hospital for shortness of breath. Chest CT showed ground glass opacity and traction bronchiectasis at right middle, lower lobe and left lingular division.[ ... ] Polarized optical microscopy showed lung lesions were consisted of silica and carbon materials. She was a housewife and never been exposed to silica dusts occupationally. She has taken freshwater snails as a health-promoting food for 40 yr and ground shell powder was piled up on her backyard where she spent day-time. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy of snail shell and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy of lung lesion revealed that silica occupies important portion. Herein, we report the first known case of silicosis due to chronic inhalation of shell powder of freshwater snail.
 
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Okay. I see. "If PO4 is relatively low to start with your Silicate levels should drop quicker although it is quite uncommon to have very high Silicate levels in a Reef Tank so it would be prudent to double check your test kit with another just to be sure."
 
I think I am on the road to beating dinoflagellates!

Update. Two weeks with no vacuuming. For _months_ I was vacuuming every 2-3 days. Then blackout--and a lot of other work*. Now this:

Dino Update 20200701 Squist 2-weeks no vacuuming!.png


Tank hasn't looked better! There's a lot to update. I am working with other BAR members on a dino case study and a 1-year anniversary update. Super stoked!

*Other work: Si reduction with Rowaphos, increased N and P, stopped water changes, bacteria boosts, and clean-up-crew.
 
I think I am on the road to beating dinoflagellates!

Update. Two weeks with no vacuuming. For _months_ I was vacuuming every 2-3 days. Then blackout--and a lot of other work*. Now this:

View attachment 17081

Tank hasn't looked better! There's a lot to update. I am working with other BAR members on a dino case study and a 1-year anniversary update. Super stoked!

*Other work: Si reduction with Rowaphos, increased N and P, stopped water changes, bacteria boosts, and clean-up-crew.

Hell yeah, man! Nothing makes you appreciate a clean tank like visiting an apocalypse on dinoflagellates.
 
I like the bio media in the old ATO, hows that connected?

The cryptic fuge. I did it with Uniseals. My first time using them. Fantastic seal and super-easy to work with.

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Is the left rock structure made with the stax rocks?

All the rock is Stax. The left column is three pieces: the top crown--three layers cemented together as one piece; the column--stacked and cemented; and a 3/4" acrylic base that the column is attached. The stax pile on the right gets to change shape everyone once in awhile.

There are some pics of the back on page 1 of my tank profile
 

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PAR Filter Experiment

Hoping a member borrowing the MQ-510 PAR meter might be interested in a filter experiment.

My tank has a shelf for SPS that receives around 450 PAR in the center of my tank. To help acclimate a new SPS, I have placed a piece of parchment paper on top of my tank's cover, below my light, and above a new coral I picked up from @Coral reefer; a nice chunk of tri color valida.

PAR Screen 1.png
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PAR Screen 3.png


I want to use a screen to reduce PAR in only that spot to acclimate this SPS instead of moving the coral from low PAR to high PAR zones.

If you are interested, have some way of suspending a piece of parchament paper or paper towel below your light, while measuring PAR 4-5 inches below the surface and under the paper filter, I am curious by how much PAR is reduced.

I figure I can reduce layers and size of screen over time to acclimate the coral.
 
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PAR Filter Experiment

Hoping a member borrowing the MQ-510 PAR meter might be interested in a filter experiment.

My tank has a shelf for SPS that receives around 450 PAR in the center of my tank. To help acclimate a new SPS, I have placed a piece of parchment paper on top of my tank's cover, below my light, and above a new coral I picked up from @Coral reefer; a nice chunk of tri color valida.

View attachment 20874 View attachment 20875
View attachment 20876

I want to use a screen to reduce PAR in only that spot to acclimate this SPS instead of moving the coral from low PAR to high PAR zones.

If you are interested, have some way of suspending a piece of parchament paper or paper towel below your light, while measuring PAR 4-5 inches below the surface and under the paper filter, I am curious by how much PAR is reduced.

I figure I can reduce layers and size of screen over time to acclimate the coral.
Cool idea!
 
+1 cool idea! Shade cloth would be another option and i think shade cloth have a small range of different ratings that you could try as well.
 
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