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 Verified Community Expert]

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 Verified Community Expert]

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.

 

[gabrinator06]

2 months have passed since the post, here is a little update:

- Reached out to Aquaforest to determine if they filter out small particulates in their facility before ICP - they dont

- bought a fauna marin ICP kit with the 0.22 micron filter, just to rule out that small particulates artificially raise the AL reading

- The results were more or less the same for the filtered sample as for the unfiltered one

- Inspected the biomedia again, the Eheim subtrate pro was in multiple cases broken up, and I could crush it with my hand, this and seachem matrix were removed (coarse foam pad was added)

- after a month, I sent another ICP to Aquaforest, the results were still the same, around 0.05 mg/l.

So now I removed also the JBL micromec, and instead put in a coarse foam pad. I will wait another month with weekly waterchanges, and hope this will solve it, my ricordea florida is not the same ever since.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Sounds like a fine plan. Keep us updated!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

- Reached out to Aquaforest to determine if they filter out small particulates in their facility before ICP - they dont

That seems like it is perhaps either a misunderstanding of the question, or a problem.

1. If one dose not remove suspended organisms such as bacteria and phytoplankton, then trace element analysis won't be accurate since it will count all elements in those organsims as if they were in the water.

2. ICP machines send the liquid through very fine tubes and opening. Clogging could be a concern.