Is Marine Pure effective at reducing nitrates? We learn some valuable lessons. | BRStv Investigates

[randyBRS]

Hey guys!

The time has come to reveal the results of the Marine Pure test! As the thread title alludes to, we ran into some speed bumps during this test, but we still walked away with some eye opening results.


Let us know what you think!

 

[beaslbob]

interesting.

IMHO the aqua fuge took ammonia/nitrates away from the marine pure.
I would have also kept the tanks in darkness to prevent algae action for the same reason.

but live an learn and I really like these tests.

my .02

 

[furam28]

Marinepure blocks do the same thing as live rocks, but more efficiently because of the available surface area. If you have enough live rocks, MP blocks are unnecessary. I personally use it because of my minimalist rockscape. I struggle to keep nitrates above 0 most of the time and my phosphate stays around 0.01 without any GFO. Does my 8x8x4 mp block have anything to do with it? Probably. On a side-note MP does leach aluminum. I got back my Triton results last month and Al was off the chart. All other elements were in range. All my corals including acros seem to be very happy so I don't think the Al is having any ill effect. But something to keep in mind when you are considering MP.

 

[Pola0502ds]

I personally believe marine pure reduces nitrates because marine pure is all I have in my system, been over a year now, and I have had zero nitrates since then. And phosphates. Prior to that I had too much nutrients. I actually think it does WAY too good of a job because I have tried everything except for dosing nitrates and phosphates to get them up. More than doubling the amount of food I feed, adding a ton of fish, etc.. No matter what i do I can't raise it.

I will say I am a firm believer that the marine pure does leach aluminum. Every time i have Triton test my water aluminum is elevated.

 

[Rogue Snail]

Does Al13 leech out of that block over time?

 

[Cory]

Really really appreciate that you guys do these videos! Thanks a million!

 

[DLHDesign]

Could the ground-up food caused pores to clog? Could that - and the resulting breakdown, etc. - have explained some of the spikes?

Great job as always! Glad to see that you guys have enough integrity to call foul on your own efforts - despite the costs involved. True science for us all! You've got my business for sure!

 

[Cory]

Does Al13 leech out of that block over time?

From what others have tested via triton it does. But most people say it doesnt effect anything negatively. However there are some people who have blamed their blocks on coral desths. Most sensible are softies.

 

[JVS]

I was wondering also with the pores clogging eventually and if they have a life span. I rinse my marine pure balls at least once a month when I do a water change to help them not to clog with detritus.

 

[siggy]

I currently have 2 gallons of Marine pur spheres in the overflow of a Marineland 75. Current trends have veered away from Wet/Dry filters and the oxygen fed bacteria on the surface of a media, Bio-Wheel filters still employ this process so there must be some merit. Please try aeration in some form and water movement
in another.
I also see merit to carbon dosing within this test, would the high level of available bacteria prevented the large spike toward the end of your test?

 

[randyBRS]

Does Al13 leech out of that block over time?

I know this was a big question surrounding this test, but we didn't get the chance to get a sample pre/post test, to send to ICP-OES/AES testing labs.

Could the ground-up food caused pores to clog? Could that - and the resulting breakdown, etc. - have explained some of the spikes?
Great job as always! Glad to see that you guys have enough integrity to call foul on your own efforts - despite the costs involved. True science for us all! You've got my business for sure!

Thanks! I mentioned the same when hearing of the results. I think there is some value in having significant flow over a majority of each block/plate. We definitely need to revisit this one on a few levels.

-Randy

 

[Dapperjman]

Just curious, but are the labels for block and plate backwards on the graph? I was hearing one and expecting a different color, haha

Either way, I look forward to these videos every week. Great job!!

 

[saltyhog]

I have had a Marine Pure 4x4x8 block in my sump for over a year and my Triton test showed aluminum not to be elevated. I haven't had it impact my nitrates however.

 

[Cyricdark]

From what Ive read on this forum and many others, real marinepure blocks don't leach aluminum, but there are some counterfeit ones from China that do, why I made sure to buy mine from BRS instead of ebay,etc.

You guys really need to include the brightwell aquatics no3 export brick in the next test as well since it's specifically designed to reduce nitrates. I know they have got some bad PR from a bad production run of bricks that disintegrated in the tank after two weeks or but supposedly that's all fixed in current batches and it would really be nice to know if they work as claimed.

Lastly, unlike the no3 export bricks which include a built in carbon source the marinepure blocks may need an organic carbon to denitrate effectively, you should set up another batch of marinepure blocks for the test that you carbon dose every day with vodka, red sea no3po4 , etc. I really think this will make a HUGE difference in your test results. I've added a marinepure block, a no3 export brick, to my sump about 3 weeks ago and every day I take my daily dose of vodka in a syringe and stick it down next to the block and spray it right onto them, I've had a ongoing nitrate problem for months running around 40-60 ppm nitrates. Now I'm at 20 ppm and dropping lower every day. I hesitate to give the marinepure and brightwell blocks full credit though because I also added a red/blue homemade led light to my chaeto and took out the compact flourescent light that I had, and since then my chaeto has went from 6" diameter ball to a basketball sized clump so that could be the cause, most likely though it's a combination of all or some of these things.

 

[saltyhog]

Cyric, my experience jives with yours.

I moved and restarted my tank in early Dec. I kept my Marine Pure block and added two Brightwell NO3 bricks. Despite pretty heavy feeding my nitrates have not been higher than 0.25 and were undetectable until about a month ago.

 

[Roggio]

I would love to see the Brightwell Brick as well as the spheres included in the next investigation. How long will the media cure? I know a lot of this bacteria takes 10-20 hours to multiply. Cure time vs surface area.

 

[Greaps]

A test tank with a deep sand bed 6-7 inches deep with a functional (not giant, but fitting many mid sized sumps) size perhaps 12 inches wide and 10 inches long, in a blacked out tank would be interesting as well. I think the sand bed may do an even better job than that block since we know for a fact there will be anoxic areas for denitrification.

Or a set of deep sand bed tests would be amazing, one tank 3 inches, 4 inches, 5 inches, 6 inches, 8 inches, the test may not take an enormous amount of time either, many people report results from adding "remote deep sand beds" within a matter of a month.

A variety of depths would be interesting to see what depth is minimally required for any effect, and at what point additional sand does not help. It would also be fascinating to learn or get closer to understanding how much surface area affects results.

I guess another separate experiment could be related to grain size if this is successful.

 

[chevegan]

As other have said, Thank you guys for doing this test. I agree with the end statement that introducing uncured media was probably not a good decision for the end results you guys were testing. Just anecdotal but I have a shallow sand bed, 13lbs reef saver, and 1 marine pure Medium ROCK (which wasn't tested here) it sits in the middle of my IM 30L tank and my nitrates always read at or near zero. I don't know why or what exactly is the reason for it but its the truth. Used 2 different kits to be certain. Anyway hope for the best on the re-do of the test and again, thanks.

 

[jason2459]

As for the Aluminum leaching. Yes, yes it does.

I would read through this thread for more details
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-much-aluminum-will-it-leach-lets-guess.247034/

 

[pfoxgrover]

Please Please Please add some testing of aluminum into your new test!

I have seen enough reports of aluminum leaching from these products that there is NO WAY I would use them unless this is proven not to be true! Randy has already shown that high levels of aluminum will negatively effect corals. I am currently using sintered glass which has less surface area but safer in my opinion.


Please Please Please add some testing of aluminum into your new test!