Marine pure ceramic biomedia

rfalvey89 said:
I have an 8x4x4 that never could fit in my sump:confused: .
if somebody wants it...+
great piece of BIO , in a box....never did test for (AI)

They go for ~$60

$25:fish2::wavehand:
Click to expand...

You could break it up .. .. Wrap rubble in netting or run rubble through a reactor.
 
After my chat with john today. I will remove my block and send out for another triton test in a month to c if levels have lowered
 
Roger - You're a smart guy - I would hesitate to make any changes based on this thread. When we try to change things based on this hysteria - our tanks usually suffer.

Here are my thoughts on all of this. There are flaws with this comparison to the triton results and the culprit being the biomedia blocks.

I used to work in a lab that had an ICP (granted - it was 10 years ago or more and I only ran samples a couple of times on it). I don't know what Triton is doing (they don't report their methods) - but analyzing saltwater via ICP is one of the most difficult and challenging of substances. I'd routinely hear the analysts flip their lid when they got high concentration samples (like saltwater). They also have problems in how they report their results that leads me to believe they are not top of the line scientists - which casts a shadow of doubt on everything they do - for me at least.

This also means that the sample you send them must be diluted down anywhere from 10-1000 times so it isn't clogging their injectors. Every dilution magnifies the precision and accuracy errors that can occur - leaving you less reliable in a final result reported. Without this report on +/- precision - you'll never really know what they are doing at Triton.

the ICP test doesn't distinguish between the source and the results. Your getting back an elemental analysis. Aluminum is in a lot. Clays are very high in aluminum - so if you have an open window - dust could be blowing into the house and settling in the tank. This time of the year when it cools down and we close back up and run the heaters - the results could be trending down. Heck - for all we know it could be the anti-caking agents in the salt mixes we use - again - we don't know the exact composition of those. If you've switched to ESV - you could have had dropping Aluminum levels for a while (your aluminum is already trending down) - so your test may still come back lower in aluminum as you continue with water changes.

These biomedia blocks are supposed to be ceramic alumina. That means they probably took some powdered alumina, added a bit of water, pressed it all together and baked it in an oven at around 2100 degrees C (the water will cook off - leaving the voids and such that the bacteria will colonize). This is also known as sintered alumina. that's some of the most inert material on the planet - or supposed to be. The same material is used for crucibles - the little cups they put into ovens and bake at hundreds or thousands of degrees - then clean with Nitric acid - and their none the worse for wear.

When comparing this to what's done for the ICP test - if it's truly 100% sintered alumina - then the ICP test isn't detecting any materials released from the biomedia block. If it releases any particulate alumina - the ICP test used 1M HNO3 (1 Molar Nitric Acid) in the sample to dissolve the elements into ionic form so they can be detected by the ICP. This material is supposed to be non-soluble in Nitric Acid.

Of course, there's always the possibility that the guys making these have poor quality control and only cooked them at hundreds of degrees instead of thousands of degrees. If that's the case, then my arguments are all wrong.

Lastly, nothing against any one else here - I don't trust the scientific methods of hobbyists. I don't trust my own scientific methods. I don't trust the scientific methods of some scientists. We just don't have the resources available to us to control all of the variables to definitively say one thing is a source of another thing. Even the tests proposed by Sherminator and Randy are subject to skepticism if its not peer reviewed. I doubt they are going to write a paper and have it peer reviewed.
 
Thx Ted I value your opinion for sure. I spent some time talking with john yesterday. I removed the block this morning. I will resend the sample to triton in a month. I also called and talked to Scott who we send the triton samples to in California yesterday before talking with john too
 
I also had some from two years ago that worked fine. At the time I bought these - it was cheaper to buy direct from MarinePure than any online retailer. These ones were robust and didn't have any material flaking off. The urchins I had liked to chew on them and they did create some dimples in it.

After getting back into the hobby late last year - BRS has become the cheapest source. These ones - I am having issues with the material - it's flaking off (not to the point of dissolving) but I can see sand sized particles in my sump. they also didn't ship too well - there was alot of cleaning to do before putting it into the tank.
 
What's the final verdict I was thinking of purchasing one but all I can find is good news and bad news equally
 
I've got them in all our systems here. Growing every family of coral you can name without issues. They have been a fantastic boost to biological filtration with minimal space. In fact, I'm about to replace all the bio balls in our fish system with their bio spheres.
 
wasn't there some concern about these leeching aluminum?

granted with water changes that should resolve any issue of large buildup
 
I've got the large square in my frag tank with no issues, I'm pretty sure the aluminum issue described was from people sticking their arms in their tanks up their armpits and getting the deodorant wet. Aluminum is the main ingredient in deodorant.
 
I have used the medium sized block and the 2 inch spheres previously and never had any negative issue with them. All my experience is that they are a very helpful edition to any biological filtration suite.
 
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