Marinepure - Crumbling/leaching still an issue?

[sanzz18]

So I am setting up my fuge to grow macroalgae for nutrient export reasons. I also want to start getting my pod population up. So, I want to have some sort of media that will give the pods a good place to breed/hide. I am going to be ordering my chaeto and pods from @AlgaeBarn and I notice that they always seem to use those marinepure cubes in their refugium packages.

I would love to use marinepure in my sump but also read tons of older posts on leaching aluminum as well as crumbling. I also read that if they do leach, that it is not an issue. Also that half the people say the marinepure crumbles and half say it is all good.

Any advice on this would be awesome, as I want to order everything today.

 

[blaxsun]

I can't comment on the leeching, but they are very brittle - so whenever they come into contact with each other or something else you do get the occasional spatter of particles. This usually just sits in the bottom of the sump, and if you're really anal retentive I can see how this might trigger one's OCD.

 

[sanzz18]

I can't comment on the leeching, but they are very brittle - so whenever they come into contact with each other or something else you do get the occasional spatter of particles. This usually just sits in the bottom of the sump, and if you're really anal retentive I can see how this might trigger one's OCD.

Okay cool. Any other recommendations for media that wouldn’t be a pain in the a** to take out when cleaning the sump? Rubble seems like a good idea but having to take it all out to vacuum out detritus does not seem fun.

 

[JNalley]

Okay cool. Any other recommendations for media that wouldn’t be a pain in the a** to take out when cleaning the sump? Rubble seems like a good idea but having to take it all out to vacuum out detritus does not seem fun.

I use the MarinePure spheres in my AIO and never have any issues but it's a different application. I wanted to comment with getting a Pod Hotel/Breeder like these:







These work pretty well for Pod populations and you can pull them out, dip them in the display and give them a shake so pods come out and then place them back in the Sump.

 

[Lavey29]

Okay cool. Any other recommendations for media that wouldn’t be a pain in the a** to take out when cleaning the sump? Rubble seems like a good idea but having to take it all out to vacuum out detritus does not seem fun.

Just turkey blaster it so it is suspended in the water and shop vac it out. Most of mine gets sucked up by the skimmer in the next chamber.

 

[JNalley]

Just turkey blaster it so it is suspended in the water and shop vac it out. Most of mine gets sucked up by the skimmer in the next chamber.

forgive me for being a noob, but normally I see sumps setup in this order: Mechanical Filtration > Skimmer >Biological/Chemical Filtration>return. Is this not the way to set it up? Only asking because I'm in the process of drilling a tank to accommodate a sump.

 

[Karen00]

I use marinepure gems in a mesh bag in one of the chambers in my AIO and have never had any issues with crumbling but at the same time they aren't tumbling into each other because of torrents of water passing through the mesh bag. I guess it's possible they could begin to break down if they're banging into each other. The mesh bag just sits in one corner. I can't speak to whether it's leaching aluminum. Everything seems to be fine in my tank. I heard the pod hotels work well. I've been thinking of getting one.

 

[Lavey29]

forgive me for being a noob, but normally I see sumps setup in this order: Mechanical Filtration > Skimmer >Biological/Chemical Filtration>return. Is this not the way to set it up? Only asking because I'm in the process of drilling a tank to accommodate a sump.

My red sea V3 sump came pre set with sock tray first flowing into an open chamber that can be used for refugium or reactors. Then passes through gate to the second chamber where my skimmer is then through bubble trap gate into the return chamber.

The open chamber after the sock try I utilize for rock rubble and marine pure spheres which do accumulate detritus so I just blow it off once a week and let my skimmer catch it in the next chamber.

My sock tray also contains a media cup for chemical Filtration as needed. I typically just keep a bag of carbon in there

 

[blaxsun]

Okay cool. Any other recommendations for media that wouldn’t be a pain in the a** to take out when cleaning the sump? Rubble seems like a good idea but having to take it all out to vacuum out detritus does not seem fun.

I use three types: a pair of the 4x8x8 blocks (which are brittle on the edges and corners), 2 boxes of the 1.5" spheres (which are pretty good) and 3-4 boxes of the tiny 0.5" hexes (which tend to chip off).

If you're going to use these (outside of the large blocks and plates), the square media containers with holes in them that you can simply pull out for maintenance is the way to go (something I should probably do).

They're not detritus traps and I've never had to vacuum out detritus from the sump - just the tiny particles of media that will invariably break off over time. But you're absolutely correct that it's a PITA to remove them manually for sump maintenance, hence the media container suggestion (remove, rinse/soak in saltwater and replace in the sump when done).

This is the only kind of bio media I've used, but it has worked extremely well to keep my nutrients in-check.

 

[DrugMonkeyRX]

Put the spheres in my 20G Waterbox and on my very next ICP test my aluminum went from 80ppb to 233ppb

Pulled them right out yesterday....my leather coral was not doing well at all now im curious to see how if it comes back