Is Marine Pure effective at reducing nitrates? We learn some valuable lessons. | BRStv Investigates

[vio]

"keep in mind though i do run Rowaphos, which some have considered to remove the Aluminum..."

Rowa do a great job, but i still don't believe those blocks remove Nitrates, in my opinion Bio-Pellets , Macro Algae , Sulfur filter remove 100 times Nitrate then those blocks. Is about how you balance the Carbon source and close loop filter , density of Bacteria, you may have 500 lb. live Rocks and one good filter bet those , to remove Nitrate.

 

[chicago]

i use to run a full 300 gallon sump with dsb and live rock. no issues with nitrate.. i pulled it a few years ago.. that is another thread of a story.. nasty sand after 7 yeas..now have a sump with some live rock and these blocks... 14.. NO nitrate reduction from them yet.. perhaps to much flow in the sum for these blocks..

 

[chicago]

ok.. well this just got more interesting.. i also sent a sample to ATI to test my water.. They came back with 7.167 Ug/L Aluminum. Triton showed zero. Hmm... two good companies for testing water and yet two different results.

 

[vio]

to much flow, Yes , may be the problem.

 

[chicago]

I hear you but you would think two stacks high and 4 across by two. So 2 by 4 by 2. Total if 16 creating one large one would have very little flow in center. I think I’ll dump
Like a ten gallon tank in the sump and put like 4 blocks in there. So only flow to those would be the water in the sump coming across the top. No side currents as the blocks will be surrounded by glass now.

 

[Greaps]

I have my doubts that these bio-medias work for de-nitrification, for helping with ammonia spikes on the other hand I see it working. For denitrification in a deep sand bed it needs to be over 5 inches deep generally from what I have read, the bricks are 2-3 inches thick and water much more freely passes through the brick than deep in the sandbed.
My hypothesis is water passes far to easily, the pores are to large, and the blocks are not thick enough.

 

[vegamedic]

ok.. well this just got more interesting.. i also sent a sample to ATI to test my water.. They came back with 7.167 Ug/L Aluminum. Triton showed zero. Hmm... two good companies for testing water and yet two different results.

That may be because 7.16μg/L is a pretty low concentration of anything and might be at the bottom range of ATI's level of detection and below Triton's.

 

[chicago]

and yet on another tank.. my Frag QT that has a small few inches of block of Marine Pure.. ATI got 117.6 in that tank for Aluminum.. so low levels in my main system... and on the newer, 30 gallon tank we have 117.6.

 

[Aardvark1134]

I can't say for sure about marine pure...but I can tell you that I run seachem pond matrix in both my african cichlid tanks which are heavily over stocked and it keeps them near 0.
One tank has been setup about 7 years and the only water changes I do are to occasionally remove dissolved solids. About 10% 1 time per month. That's it the pond matrix does the rest.
2 things to note.
1) I run 1 Gallon of it in a wet dry in place of bio balls per 100 gallon of tank.
2) Ammonia and nitrite start going down a lot within 2 weeks but nitrate takes about 10 weeks to fully kick in. Once it does your level just starts dropping like a rock.

I would assume marine pure is similar

 

[Roggio]

I removed five gallons of the spheres and a 4x8 block last week. Both has been in my tank for at least a year. The block broke down over time despite being in a lower flow area. The spheres were scattered throughout my sump and just became an area for build up. I've been struggling for the last year with keeping my nitrates down having tried everything. The vodka would work but due to the fluctuations it would take too much or too little. I also dealt with my SPS RTN'ing. I'd prefer not to dose any carbon. My tank has a huge fuge with a Kessil and an oversized external skimmer. After tons of frustration, losing corals, being forced to test my nutrients a few times a week I got the service guy for Top Shelf Aquatics to come take a look. Something had to be off. He immediately told me I should remove the marinepure (I was hesitant considering how much I spent on this media). I've been watching my nitrates drop steadily for the last week. I have always been so successful in the hobby but this build has been a nightmare. It's antidotal evidence but this clearly fixed my problem. My corals are responding better than ever and I finally have some confidence in buying more coral.


Think of it this way, out of all the very successful tanks I've seen none of them have implemented Marinepure.

 

[chicago]

Thanks for posting. Keep us updated. So did the marine pure actually become a nitrate factory? Meaning your nitrates went down after you removed them. ?

 

[Roggio]

Thanks for posting. Keep us updated. So did the marine pure actually become a nitrate factory? Meaning your nitrates went down after you removed them. ?

It seems that way. I wish I had taken pictures, I wasn't expecting much of a change. My Po4 has stayed consistently low. Maybe due to the fuge? I'd like to use some Rowa Phos to remove the rest of the Al but I don't want to strip it all.

 

[Averhoeven]

Well great... I'm in the midst of setting up my Reefer 750 right now and I threw a box of spheres, a thin plate and one of the thick bricks down into the sump.
I guess fortunately, one of my pipes cracked so I've been waiting for a replacement and the MP has just been sitting in the sump water. Should I pull all of the MP, drain the water from the sump and wipe it down? There was A lot of particulate matter when I added the MP that has sort of settled out in the sump. I guess at least it's still an easily solvable problem since it's all still contained in the sump.
The major frustration for me is the over $100 in this stuff... I guess I'll still probably use the spheres, but it will just take forever to do so. Will leave 2 in the sump to seed QT tanks with maybe.

 

[Big G]

Interesting. Seems like when I first put Marinepure into my sump it helped with lowering nitrates in my new DT. But later it becomes clogged and turned into a green slimey mess, even with my occasional cleaning efforts. Took it out. And yes, mine was beginning to crumble as well, even with very gentle handling, too. Thanks for the posts!

 

[snappa1953]

I've had MP blocks in my sump for a couple of years and have battled to control nitrate levels.

Thanks to you guys posting here, I'm going to remove all of it and focus on using a fuge and dosing.

 

[siggy]

We understand, you guys are great and have done more for us than we could hope for.

@bif24701 Hope all is well.
FTR I pulled all my marine pure, due to battling zero nitrates and High phosphates so we will see if MP was a factor.

 

[Spanky05]

So, does anyone have similar results (nitrate issues) with items such as Siporax or is this specific to Marinepure?

 

[chicago]

Did BRS ever do a follow up on the testing. I put 12 of my blocks in 2 ten gallon tanks and put the tanks in my 300 gallon sump with the idea that would limit flow. Let's see over next week what happens. My use of the blocks stacked together did NOT reduce nitrates. I'm thinking these blocks work to well. Like the bio balls in a drip plate. Nitrate factory. Time will tell

 

[siggy]

I just removed 1.5+ gallons of mp in my tank, It works too well I have zero nitrates and have to dose it.

 

[redpine42]

I have a 8x8x4 block and do have high aluminum, which I can't attribute to any other source. Also, my nitrates and PO4 are stable at 5 ppm and .08 ppm, respectively.