MarinePure Removal

[Chipper1978]

I have an 8x8x4 MarinePure Block in the sump of my just over 4 month old Waterbox 130.4. It’s messy (crumbles) and takes up valuable space in my already small refugium section. Would removing it result in a possible ammonia spike or a huge parameters swing?

 

[Spare time]

If you remove it, I highly suggest dosing a variety of strong bacterial products. Removing something like that can result in a dino issue. I would add something like dr tims one and only (microbacter xlm, fritz turbo start, etc. of the more powerful bottles), and consider some bacterial diversity producst like pns probio, dr tims ecobalance, or waste away (waste away if your nitrates and phosphates aren't too low.

The biggest concern from my experience is removing bacterial diversity. However, if you are going to remove it, its better to do it now than down the road.

 

[intricate_reefer]

How heavily stocked is your tank? Like mentioned adding some bacteria is a good option. I like bio spira because it’s reasonably priced and works well. Have you thought about replacing it with another media. I was using a ceramic media but wanted to remove it because of aluminum showing up on icp. I went with Siporax which is a bio media that is made out of sintered glass. You could add it then a few weeks later remove the ceramic one.

 

[Marc2952]

How heavily stocked is your tank? Like mentioned adding some bacteria is a good option. I like bio spira because it’s reasonably priced and works well. Have you thought about replacing it with another media. I was using a ceramic media but wanted to remove it because of aluminum showing up on icp. I went with Siporax which is a bio media that is made out of sintered glass. You could add it then a few weeks later remove the ceramic one.

I had 3 blocks of marinepure in my 75 gallon and didnt see any problems when i removed all 3 at once. Your rock should be able to support it.

 

[Chipper1978]

If you remove it, I highly suggest dosing a variety of strong bacterial products. Removing something like that can result in a dino issue. I would add something like dr tims one and only (microbacter xlm, fritz turbo start, etc. of the more powerful bottles), and consider some bacterial diversity producst like pns probio, dr tims ecobalance, or waste away (waste away if your nitrates and phosphates aren't too low.

The biggest concern from my experience is removing bacterial diversity. However, if you are going to remove it, its better to do it now than down the road.

Thanks so much for the ideas on the different products. Lack of bacterial diversity is definitely huge.

 

[Chipper1978]

How heavily stocked is your tank? Like mentioned adding some bacteria is a good option. I like bio spira because it’s reasonably priced and works well. Have you thought about replacing it with another media. I was using a ceramic media but wanted to remove it because of aluminum showing up on icp. I went with Siporax which is a bio media that is made out of sintered glass. You could add it then a few weeks later remove the ceramic one.

Thanks! I guess I’m just confused about the need to add more bacteria since it should also be throughout my display rock. Wouldn’t adding any of those products be good regardless of whether or not I remove the block.

 

[Nathan Milender]

I recently did the same after a lab test came back normal other than 700+ silica. It had no major effect on ammonia or nitrate as far as test kits go. There has been a lingering algae breakout and some dino's. I have been doing waste away at about 1/4 dose and it is resolving. LPS is happier.

 

[fishface NJ]

Bio Spira isn't the type of bacteria you would be removing that is in your blocks. No need to add that

 

[Chipper1978]

I would say pretty heavily stocked, as I need to empty my skimmer cup every 2-3 days and change filter floss just as often. I have 10 fish, a good amount of inverts (e.g., cleaner shrimp, snails, tuxedo urchin), a handful of LPS corals, and 3 Monti caps.

ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 2
phosphate - 0.07
dKH - 7.6
pH - 8.2
salinity - 1.025
calcium - 430
magnesium - 1280
temp - 78

 

[Chipper1978]

I recently did the same after a lab test came back normal other than 700+ silica. It had no major effect on ammonia or nitrate as far as test kits go. There has been a lingering algae breakout and some dino's. I have been doing waste away at about 1/4 dose and it is resolving. LPS is happier.

This is very helpful information! I’ve been curious if I have some sort of silica leaching. I feel like my parameters, as noted above, have been very steady and within good ranges, yet I build up film algae on my glass within hours of cleaning it and algae in the sand has been a consistent problem over the last few weeks.

 

[Labora]

I doubt it if you have live rock. I'm about to remove all of my bio balls and replacing with chaeto. Have live rock so not worried at all.

 

[Chipper1978]

I doubt it if you have live rock. I'm about to remove all of my bio balls and replacing with chaeto. Have live rock so not worried at all.

Unfortunately, it is dry Marco rock. However, I’m in month five of it being in the tank so I’m thinking it’s pretty well established at this point.

 

[Chipper1978]

All in all, I am fine with the possibilty of throwing some parameters off for a little while, as long as I don’t get some sort of ammonia spike that kills my life stock and crashes my tank. Any reason to believe that this could happen?

 

[Spare time]

Bio Spira isn't the type of bacteria you would be removing that is in your blocks. No need to add that

Yes it is? These blocks are designed to be biofilters to remove ammonia, nitrite (both of which are done by bio spira), and on occasion ammonia. That is quite literally what these are made for.

 

[Spare time]

All in all, I am fine with the possibilty of throwing some parameters off for a little while, as long as I don’t get some sort of ammonia spike that kills my life stock and crashes my tank. Any reason to believe that this could happen?

As long as you dose some nitrifiers (remove filter sock and carbon for this as well as turning off skimmer for a bit) there shouldn't be a problem with ammonia. Even then, its hard to say whether it could or wouldn't be necessary since you still have the sand and to a degree the rock in the tank. I would still do it though just as a precaution.

 

[Pistondog]

replace the marine pure with some live rock.
Thats what I did in my 25g fuge after triton test showed high aluminum.

 

[Chipper1978]

As long as you dose some nitrifiers (remove filter sock and carbon for this as well as turning off skimmer for a bit) there shouldn't be a problem with ammonia. Even then, its hard to say whether it could or wouldn't be necessary since you still have the sand and to a degree the rock in the tank. I would still do it though just as a precaution.

I think I will dose bio spira, wait a couple days and dose eco balance. Thanks for the input!

 

[Chipper1978]

replace the marine pure with some live rock.
Thats what I did in my 25g fuge after triton test showed high aluminum.

I was thinking of doing that, but it kind of defeats the purpose of me removing the marine pure block to save space in my sump.

 

[intricate_reefer]

Thanks! I guess I’m just confused about the need to add more bacteria since it should also be throughout my display rock. Wouldn’t adding any of those products be good regardless of whether or not I remove the block.

The media house bacteria that process the ammonia. Im not an expert but it may contain a good percentage of the bacteria that processes the ammonia in your tank. Adding the instant cycle type bacteria like bio spira or turbo start 900 would just be there in case the bacteria left in the tank couldn’t keep up on their own. Even without adding it, I doubt it would be an issue but if your tank is heavily stocked it would give myself a little peace of mind.

 

[Kenneth Wingerter]

I have an 8x8x4 MarinePure Block in the sump of my just over 4 month old Waterbox 130.4. It’s messy (crumbles) and takes up valuable space in my already small refugium section. Would removing it result in a possible ammonia spike or a huge parameters swing?

Have you considered replacing the MarinePure with a loose (passive flow) sponge? This would serve the same purpose as the ceramic medium without the crumbling (I've sold a lot of that stuff and know exactly what you're talking about). I think both fishface and Spare Time are correct in that there definitely are some small number of nitrifying bacteria on the outside (i.e. aerobic) surfaces of the medium, though the majority of the inner surfaces (most of the block) are likely colonized by anaerobic (e.g. denitrifying) microbes. Thus, while you might not experience a substantial spike in NH4/NO2 after removing the MarinePure from this type of application, you could actually see elevated NO3 concentrations a bit further down the road. This is why I'd recommend an anaerobe such as R. palustris (PNS ProBio) that assimilates NH4, NO2 and especially NO3. I've soaked ProBio directly into a sponge and used this as the sole source of filtration in a newly set up and heavily fed NPS system--never had any sort of nitrogen cycling issues, even with minimal water exchange.