Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
I wonder how well the MarinePure will hold up to the vibration. I had a block once and it was very easy to crumble, I cut it in half with a butter knife - very easily. Even moving it I would break off small fragements, but it was the large block, maybe the smaller ones are harder. It should be interesting if triton shows elevated aluminum with the mechanical action on the MarinePure.
I think folks have seen elevated aluminum just in normal use.
Yes it will be.
I did ordered the MarinePure Ceramic Biomedia 1 1/2” Spheres by BRS (no scare for the hacker)
It will be here after the weekend and will replace the ZEOlite stone for the Spheres.
Of course before I do I'll take some water samples for Triton to be send in, and two weeks in will send another test in.
Will post here my progress.
Been looking into some info but my 40+ years in this hobby is telling me that not much can go wrong other than a PO4 spike but I will have enough bacteria and newly mix saltwater on hand to jump in.
I'll test already ALK on a daily schedule and will add to that my PO4.
The reason I went with the Spheres is that they will have a larger surface area than if I just could leave the ZEOlite stones.
As usual I'll keep dosing my daily ZEO schedule to not make a to big of offset.
Wish me luck........... The Diesel will either burn or bound to the next step in bio-filteration.
Oh forgot to mention that I use the Large VIBE from AVAST MARINE to tumble the stones and soon the Spheres, every 8 hours it will run for 1 minute.
I think folks have seen elevated aluminum just in normal use.
Yes sir, I am curious how much more, if any, all the vibration causes. I would be concerned about it if they are brittle as the one I have.
Hmm yea if the media is that soft that you can cut it with a knife, that could be a bit worrying. I remember Randy did some experiments where he found that aluminium significantly affected corals and if you have a mature tank with lots of nice stock, I am not sure thats something worth risking. I agree that as far as the experiment goes, assuming the media really is inert, little can go wrong as its just like leaving the stones replacement for a bit longer. But if the media is in question and if some people have found problems with it, that could be a different matter - not really related to the experiment but more to do with this potentially toxic media.
I appreciate you might be keen to go straight for different media but thought I would mention a couple of things to try first in case you want to try.
First it would be really good for those of us following to know a few bits of info.
What is your phosphate level and if its measurable and you monitor it, do you see it varying depending on how long the stones have been in?
Same with nitrate level (and any other nitrogen tests you do like ammonia) - do you check it and or see it varying?
Also, this claim that corals 'brighten up' or 'color up' when you replace the stones - have you ever seen that and does it always happen?
I was thinking it might be safer to start an experiment very gradually, perhaps either with GFO, or perhaps dosed iron. But also, its possible that the stones are leaching something which is feeding the bacteria which grow on them, in which case old stones might not be affecting phosphates as much as total nitrogen. IE if the stones are keeping the ammonia -> biomass bacteria healthy with trace elements, perhaps when stones get old, its actually total nitrogen which rises rather than phosphates. Or both perhaps.
Either way its going to be very interesting but I just wanted to urge caution if you have a great healthy tank and are considering putting a media in it which has been linked to coral problems. An alternative material might be something like hard limestone chips, although of course as you mentioned the surface area might not be as high as the ceramic media. But I am not convinced that the high surface area of the zeolite is essential myself. If the zeolite is covered with thick biofilm, the question is how much of its deep surface is actually active. Perhaps not much, in which case surface area of the pores would not be important.
I think this ammonia -> biomass process is very different to the denitrifying we are used to dealing with in salt aquaria, with the denitrifying process relying on porosity to create anerobic conditions, by limiting the flow of water (containing oxygen) into the denitrifying zones in media. In contrast for the ammonia -> biomass process, as much oxygen as possible is required, as the process uses large quantities of oxygen. So deep pores would seem to have much less use here. The active layer, where ammonia is converted into biomass, would be limited in thickness to whatever allowed sufficient diffusion of oxygen and nutrients. While a fairly large surface area would be beneficial, there has to be a balance between surface area and oxygen diffusion, and because of that the active layer might even just be the surface layer on the stones, with nothing useful happening within the stones pores.
I ceramics break down too easily you could just continue to use the old zeo stones. I'm sure the surface area is adequate.
Could run triton test on regular freshly mixed salt, then with something like a 10g aquarium or qt tank hook up new zeostones and the reactor for a few days or a week and send in another test? Nothing in the tank so no feeding, no other additions so any change in elements would be from the stones. So you have fresh mixed baseline reading and then with whatever the zeostones could be releasing (if anything) a week later. It wouldn't be perfect, but could give a baseline if there was anything in zeostone that were released into saltwater. It wouldn't show if carbon dosing on bacteria was doing anything, since there wouldn't be dosing, but after the samples from the tank with the stones running perhaps you could experiment more other additions. Or could do the same thing with tank water that has elevated elements according to triton and run the zeostones and see if they reduce anything.
Yes sir, I am curious how much more, if any, all the vibration causes. I would be concerned about it if they are brittle as the one I have.
I love the picture with all those casings on the ground. Looks like a scene from Scarface LOL.................... maybe I can use them to keep up my skills on the Range and use them as 500 yard targets,