Aluminium problems despite frequent waterchanges

[gabrinator06]

Hello all,

I have started a nano reef (Dennerle nanocube 60) in february, and all was going well until recently, when ICP measured highly elevated levels of Aluminium. First it was 0,0497mg/l, then after 9x7L waterchanges executed in a 2weeks period was 0,0601mg/l then after 4x8L waterchanges it was 0.0678mg/l.
These elevated levels were not the case before.
I dont have a sump, but instead a JBL E702 canister filter with the following inside: Aquael Bioceramax - was removed after second ICP, Sera Siporax - was removed after second ICP, Seachem matrix, JBL Micromec and Eheim substrate pro.
Based on the ICP, I dont see anything else too elevated, so I think the culprit will be not a magnet or some other metallic component.

I am not aware if Aquaforest is actually filtering out particulates before doing the ICP or not, but I would expect at least silicates to be elevated in case it is some particulate which causes the excess reading.

RODI tests 0TDS, and between 2. and 3. ICP I dosed nothing except AF Power elixir once (2ml), and live phyto twice (2x4ml)

Based on the forum articles I read, the main culprits are usually the ceramic white biomedia, thats why I removed the Bioceramax and Siporax, but the levels still elevated even more, which is very frustrating. Other than that I have white ceramic fragplugs from recif at home, one fragplug maxspect nano tech, 3 AF nano frag rock, and a few regular ceramic ones. Almost all of them have the stem cut or shortened.

What do you think is the best course of action going forward ? Should I remove all the biomedia, or also remove the ceramic fragplugs somehow ?

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Most white media can release aluminum. Not sure what all those media you have are, but why do you have them?

 

[Justfebreezeit]

Two of the ones left are made of sintered glass (which probably contain aluminum oxide).

 

[gabrinator06]

The Eheim and the JBL are sintered glass, The seachem matrix should be pumice.
For why, the aquarium was originally for freshwater, so afterwards I cleaned the biomedia and reused it.
Nevertheless I guess its time to remove those then.

But would it be possible for these to leach this much, even though I changed so much water in short amount of time ?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Seachem matrix is supposedly pumice which contains a lot of aluminum.

If you have a reasonable amount of live rock or sand, I’d remove all off the media and see what happens to aluminum.