Marine Pure Bio-Balls?

[donutmanstan]

Greetings everybody! I have a question about my filtration on my Fluval 13.5 I'm using these Marine Pure balls which are suppose to have crazy amounts of surface area and all that. But it seems something that people talk about that they don't are the levels of aluminum that it could leach. being a small nano reef I don't want any levels of aluminum in my water column. Has anyone heard of this? Also, is there a better alternative for such a small tank? I've filled the whole second chamber with these balls. Maybe transitioning to a small bit of chaeto would be a more natural way? If it matters, I have upgraded my return pump to the Sicce 1.0, so there's an alright amount of flow back there!

Thank so much!

[SliceGolfer]

I use these in both of my tanks, and will in my next build. They’ve been in my Nuvo 20 for 16 months, no issues.

[Clown79]

I don't use them myself, I rely on my liverock.

 

I have heard of the aluminum issue being a possibility but the only way to know if it actually does or is leaching would be testing. 

[Rob Francis]

I planned on using them in my Evo, along with the Sicce 0.5 pump.

I bought the smaller 'gem' version and 1 pack fitted perfectly in the bottom section of the Intank media basket.

Rob

[mcarroll]

On 4/18/2020 at 6:53 PM, donutmanstan said:

Also, is there a better alternative for such a small tank?

Every alternative is better...out of curiosity, what made you look at them in the first place for a reef?

 

Are you running your tank without rock or sand?

 

If you have rock or sand, then there's no need for EXTRA filter media.

 

Here's what coral skeleton looks like through an electron scope:

 

This is really what you want...and what artificial media like you bought is "attempting" to recreate.

 

If you can, I'd take a read of this book before you go further with this tank:

Marine Aquarium Handbook Beginner to Breeder

[Timaaa]

if you dont want to run liverock/sand you might want to use them, they will leach aluminum but havnt found much info that its negative, just shows up on an icp test.  I think they are great for fish only or quarantine setups but for a reef tank I would skip them because they will remove nitrates that the corals need. 

[jeffmr4]

I have some that were given to me by a fish store and have used them for a while.  I think they work well.  You just have to rinse them off in ro/di water every once in a while if they get coated with stuff.

[DreC80]

1 hour ago, jeffmr4 said:

I have some that were given to me by a fish store and have used them for a while.  I think they work well.  You just have to rinse them off in ro/di water every once in a while if they get coated with stuff.

Does rinsing them off in rodi water kill the bacteria colonies that are established on/in them?

[DreC80]

On 4/18/2020 at 6:53 PM, donutmanstan said:

Greetings everybody! I have a question about my filtration on my Fluval 13.5 I'm using these Marine Pure balls which are suppose to have crazy amounts of surface area and all that. But it seems something that people talk about that they don't are the levels of aluminum that it could leach. being a small nano reef I don't want any levels of aluminum in my water column. Has anyone heard of this? Also, is there a better alternative for such a small tank? I've filled the whole second chamber with these balls. Maybe transitioning to a small bit of chaeto would be a more natural way? If it matters, I have upgraded my return pump to the Sicce 1.0, so there's an alright amount of flow back there!

Thank so much!

Are your nitrates really high?  If not, you may strip your water of all nitrates, which could be bad.  

[Clown79]

36 minutes ago, DreC80 said:

Does rinsing them off in rodi water kill the bacteria colonies that are established on/in them?

Ya it will remove some of the bacteria. Better to rinse them off in the waterchange water