Alumina ceramic sheets for zoas

[bacheller3000]

Has anyone used alumina ceramic sheets to grow zoas on for fragging? I’m looking for something much thinner than standard frag plugs and came across alumina ceramic sheets that are 0.5mm thick. Just don’t know if they are safe to grow zoas on.

 

[Andamaite]

Alumina Ceramic is going to be like 90% aluminum oxide or greater. It's generally considered incredibly stable, but there has been some back and forth (from what I've seen) as to whether aluminum-based media will leech aluminum into the water over time.

Standard clay ceramic can't go THAT thin, but it can go pretty dang thin (1/8" or so), and will have far less aluminum oxide by volume, which should greatly reduce a potential risk (if you have any concerns about that). I've made and used standard low fire ceramic pieces in fresh water with shrimp, snails, plants, etc. and never had issues ( I am currently setting up to go into salt water testing once the weather starts to warm up).

If you go a "regular ceramic" route I would strongly suggest avoiding commercially available ceramic "paint your own" tiles from places like amazon because you're not going to know what went into the manufacture. The inclusion of heavy metals in ceramics (even in glazed dishware) is an unchecked problem, QC overseas is often nonexistent, and it's a big gamble every time.