i accidently put double the amount of silica magic!

[keepleft]

hi all i was running around like a mad chicken and when i added the silica majic to my 200lt rez i put in 80ml instead of the recommended dose of 40 ml (i.e. 4ml per 10lt as opposed to 2ml per 10lt).

 

there 1 wk into 12/12 and i did this 2 days ago and just realised my mistake, doesnt look like there negatively affected by this double dose. but im worried. should i dump and start again? dont really want to waste the silica though so i would prefer not to!

 

i read somewhere that excess silica doesnt do any damage? any opinions greatly appreciated

[Oz]

I wouldn't worry just dont add it for awhile if you are

[two2time]

i would follow what oz said just leave it for a while , when the water drops below half fill again and dont put any in, then next time as normal..

 

 

tt

[keepleft]

thanks guys i checked on em today and ive left it in. i noticed they looked a bit light green at the tips. will see how they go by saturday, might dump and flush if they get worse!

[WantDaChronic]

i personally would dump and flush, but if you want to keep the silica i would just keep topping up the res with plain, pH adjusted water untill your EC drops right down and then start over again

[Luke Skywalker]

Or you could just drain half the tank and top up again with fresh nutes.

 

But yeah, I doubt it would cause much if any harm. The worst that could happen is some problem with potassium but I doubt it. 80ppm silica prob won't hurt at all when compared to a normal dose of 40ppm. In fact, I seem to recall that originally they put the dose at that rate when they first brought it out, but then found effects were similar at 40ppm.

[keepleft]

thanks luke i remember reading somewhere that it was 80ppm when first released too.

 

draining half the tank and topping up with water! should have thought of that at the time!

 

one other thing to note is that ive never used the silica majic before, and what i did was actually mix the 80 ml with 20lts of water then dump it in the tank. i did notice it clouded up even when diluted so it must be strong.

 

i am going to use the rockjuice on saturday anyway, so im going to dump and flush then just to be sure that i have precipitated some micro nutes or something

[Roger Ramjet]

If your ph is Ok...whats the problem. Silica won;t send the ec up too high...but it will rise your ph. I use it as a ph up instead of the store bought ph up. Works great...and the plants love it.

 

relax and just keep an eye on the ph.

 

Cheers,

RR

[keepleft]

thanks RR seems as though you are spot on there mate. here is the response i got from flairform (the makers of silica majic)

 

"4ml per 10L is fine. The first 3 or 4 yrs SilikaMajic was on the market, we actually recommended a dose rate of 4ml per 10L. If anything the outcome will be positive. The only issue with it is pH increase will be more pronounced therefore ensure you check and adjust pH to below 6.5."

 

there right about the ph though, even though i adjusted it down to 5.5 it was up to 6.9 2 days later in the rez

[Luke Skywalker]

Always add silicamajic to the tank before any other nutrients or additives, and then adjust pH back down to around 6.5 or so, so that after you add the nutrients, it's around the right area. This allows it to dilute into the full volume of the tank and prevents nutrient precipitation.

 

The pH will jump when you first add it to the raw water will be significant, even with tap water with a high buffering capacity. Make sure you drop pH back down after adding the silica before you add other nutrients.