How much Aluminum will it leach? Let's guess

reef_ranch · Jun 9, 2016

jason2459 said:
One thing I could do is add some bacteria and see if I get the same results. I have several bottles of bacteria in a bottle I bought to see what was in them seen here:
Starting at post 179
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/our-tanks-biology-up-close.239838/page-9

Since I will be adding it directly I should see the drop fairly quickly and not over night like with the marine pure events seen in the above chart. I would use the EcoBalance as thats the one I saw the most active and live bacteria in.

Randy's tests with Aluminum showed an immediate drop in ph and a slow rise over a period of a few hours. Your observations appear different. Still don't see how it could be bacteria though!

What did you do with the block while it was out of water? How long was it out of the water? Did you rinse with tank water before you put it back in?

jason2459 · Jun 9, 2016

acesq said:
Randy's tests with Aluminum showed an immediate drop in ph and a slow rise over a period of a few hours. Your observations appear different. Still don't see how it could be bacteria though!

What did you do with the block while it was out of water? How long was it out of the water? Did you rinse with tank water before you put it back in?

Previous post from when I transferred it over

2a. It drained out a LOT of water when I took it out to transfer sumps. And I gave it a quick swish in saltwater again and let it drain again before adding to the new sump.

I did the swishing and draining in the sump I pulled it out from. It was out of the water long enough for me to make around 10 steps and lots of swearing because it was still dripping like crazy.

FarmerTy · Jun 9, 2016

jason2459 said:
Considering the entire media is Al based I would assume it will leach until it's fully dissolved. Many have noted it gets softer as it ages.

Mine has been in the sump more than 2 years and feels about the same. As far as leaching, I have a result of 85 ug/l and its pretty much stayed that way with no water changes for almost 2 years now so I assume it has stopped leaching.

jason2459 · Jun 9, 2016

FarmerTy said:
Mine has been in the sump more than 2 years and feels about the same. As far as leaching, I have a result of 85 ug/l and its pretty much stayed that way with no water changes for almost 2 years now so I assume it has stopped leaching.

Yes, some have reported that too. Lots of different posts out there on it.

reef_ranch · Jun 9, 2016

jason2459 said:
Previous post from when I transferred it over

2a. It drained out a LOT of water when I took it out to transfer sumps. And I gave it a quick swish in saltwater again and let it drain again before adding to the new sump.

I did the swishing and draining in the sump I pulled it out from. It was out of the water long enough for me to make around 10 steps and lots of swearing because it was still dripping like crazy.

Taking the block out of the water, letting it drain, then swishing it with saltwater would not kill or removed a significant number of bacteria. Biofilm is very resilient.

jason2459 · Jun 9, 2016

acesq said:
Taking the block out of the water, letting it drain, then swishing it with saltwater would not kill or removed a significant number of bacteria. Biofilm is very resilient.

Yes, but its still my theory

jason2459 · Jun 9, 2016

So, I just added 10 caps of the Eco balance not 5 minutes ago

reef_ranch · Jun 9, 2016

Interesting. I wonder what's the media in the bottle? Let us know how long the pH stays down.

Still not the same as adding block of ceramic!

jason2459 · Jun 9, 2016

acesq said:
Interesting. I wonder what's the media in the bottle? Let us know how long the pH stays down.

Still not the same as adding block of ceramic!

It was full if coccus type of bacteria. You can see pics and video of it in that our tanks biology up close thread I linked to above.

It does show that a quick increase of bacteria will effect pH very quickly. As the bacteria will increase the CO2 levels.

This was a very quick addition tonight so there was an instant pH drop. With the ceramic media this happened over night and quick enough to drop the pH quickly but not instantly. At least thats what I believe happened twice.

Sabellafella · Jun 9, 2016

jason2459 said:
What I'm thinking.

I believe bacteria grew with in the block very rapidly and by quite a lot as indicated by the sudden pH drop after placing it in the sump. The bacteria that would have occupied the block should be facultative anaerobes as I believe it was most likely mainly driven by my carbon dosing. This means they can switch between being aerobic and anaerobic as needed so they would be very efficient at reducing Nitrates.

But, if they are in there not getting exported or being re-consumed slower then they die off before they have a chance of denitrification would release back Nitrates. Which is where that nitrate factory comes in. No real idea though on this last part. I don't believe this last part is happening. Otherwise it would be happening all the time in my live rock.

Maybe the sponge die off increased n03?
Thanks for sharing by the way, this should give some security to others

jason2459 · Jun 9, 2016

Sabellafella said:
Maybe yhe sponge die off increasted n03?

Maybe? But they started growing back again after that first few days of shrinking and shedding. But that could be a possibility. I would think their rebound the last 3.5 weeks would have consumed them again.

jason2459 · Jun 9, 2016

I think I'll dose some limewater now. lol

Maybe I shouldn't have dosed that right behind the block.

jason2459 · Jun 9, 2016

Looks like that was a temporary bottoming out. Quick enough fusion only registered 7.79 as the lowest

reef_ranch · Jun 10, 2016

jason2459 said:
It was full if coccus type of bacteria. You can see pics and video of it in that our tanks biology up close thread I linked to above.

It does show that a quick increase of bacteria will effect pH very quickly. As the bacteria will increase the CO2 levels.

This was a very quick addition tonight so there was an instant pH drop. With the ceramic media this happened over night and quick enough to drop the pH quickly but not instantly. At least thats what I believe happened twice.

It has more than just bacteria and water in it doesn't it? Something to stabilize the bacteria?

jason2459 · Jun 10, 2016

acesq said:
It has more than just bacteria and water in it doesn't it? Something to stabilize the bacteria?

Nothing that would drop the pH of the entire tank (~200 gallon total) that much that fast like some kind of acid with out killing the microbes.

I stuck a pH probe in the bottle and its reading 7.75.

jason2459 · Jun 10, 2016

FarmerTy said:
Mine has been in the sump more than 2 years and feels about the same. As far as leaching, I have a result of 85 ug/l and its pretty much stayed that way with no water changes for almost 2 years now so I assume it has stopped leaching.

I probably missed this but how much water volume?

FarmerTy · Jun 10, 2016

jason2459 said:
I probably missed this but how much water volume?

About 250 total water volume Jason.

Here's my tank with the two marine pure blocks in the sump and my elevated 86 ug/l aluminum concentration. I don't have any leathers to test the theory of their irritation to the product though.