Maxspect Nano-Tech Clear Cube

[hart24601]

Hey @Randy Holmes-Farley curious what your thoughts are on this? Seems quite different from anything else. It work like ozone to destroy yellowing compounds?

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/v...our-aquarium-water-stay-crystal-clear.848635/

 

[hart24601]

Randy or any other chemists? This seems like a pretty new and novel thing for reef tanks?

 

[hart24601]

“The active ingredient in Nano-Tech Clear-Cube is tourmaline, a crystalline mineral with piezoelectric and piroelectric properties that help to ionize air and water moving around it.”

anyone familiar with tourmaline?

 

[hart24601]

Product Information​

1. Increases the ability to dissolve water. Tourmaline atmospheric oxygen increased as the electric charges generated by the tourmaline lead to the overall reaction:

6(H2O) + O2 + DOM → 8(H+) + 4(OH-) + 4(O2-) + DOM → 4(H2O) + 4(OH-) + DOM

The first arrow indicates the natural dissociation of the water, the second is a consequence of excess electric charges generated by the tourmaline for the DOM binds to the OH- ions constantly shifting the balance towards right.

2. The simple dissociation of water. The electric charges generated by the tourmaline would have the overall reaction:

3(H2O) + DOM → 2(H2O) + (H+) + (OH-) + DOM → (H3O+) + DOM + (H3O2-) → (H3O+ + DOM) + (H3O2- +DOM)

The first arrow indicates the natural dissociation of water, the second is a consequence of excess electric charges generated by the tourmaline that push towards right the ions H3O+ and H3O2- that bind DOM, constantly shifting equilibrium.

3. Direct electrostatic effect. DOM has a surface that is covered also by electrostatic forces (depending on the nature of the DOM). It is likely that the forces generated by electric charges of the tourmaline exceed the electrostatic forces that hold together the particles of DOM, thus the DOM can no longer hold integrity and breaks down.

4. Very low energy activities. The weak energy emitted from tourmaline (4+14 μm) can break down water - water on average is composed of clusters of 36 +38 water molecules, the water passed through tourmaline a 3 +6 water molecules. This allows gas or heavy metals included in the cluster to be released, making water substantially free from impurities.

5. Anti-fungal and anti-bacterial. The content in tourmaline has, together with the ionization of water, an anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties​

 

[hart24601]

Seems a bit like magic crystal healing….

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

This is an utterly ridiculous set of explanations, IMO.

I have no idea if it does anything good or bad, but it most certainly does not do anything for some of the reasons indicated above.

FWIW, tourmaline is a favorite of the scams on purifying water. Googling leads to all sorts of wild claims.

Tourmaline and many other minerals (including GFO) have a tendency to catalyze the oxidation of organic matter. Both tourmaline and GFO also bind organic matter directly.

Is that oxidation significant enough to be useful? I do not know.

 

[hart24601]

Thanks Randy! It seemed like quite the claims and really value your expertise! Reeks of too good to be true.

 

[traian_viola]

All the threads on reef2reef about this product are closed... weird..

 

[jim_fitz]

my job is phosphate removal from sewage
and do a lot of reading in my spare time
i recently read a scientific study from Japan that suggested tourmaline my offer a solution to our biggest problem
we does a liquid very similar to GFO that binds phosphate to the sludge
our issue is we cant get rid of the sludge quick enough

and out of interest i have added them to my tank to see if there is any noticeable affect

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

my job is phosphate removal from sewage

For 20 years, mine was too, but removal from the human body rather than sewage. We ended up developing a couple of organic polymers that bind phosphate from food before it can be absorbed. :)

Let's us know if you see anything change. I'd personally be very surprised. :)

 

[jhuntstl]

All the threads on reef2reef about this product are closed... weird..

Maxspect is no longer listed in the sponsors forum section. I believe that's why all the threads have disappeared.

 

[jim_fitz]

For 20 years, mine was too, but removal from the human body rather than sewage. We ended up developing a couple of organic polymers that bind phosphate from food before it can be absorbed. :)

Let's us know if you see anything change. I'd personally be very surprised. :)

Of course I will

but I'm always a little wary of putting 2 and 2 together
if nothing else I've got a great media for bacteria to grow on

 

[OlafsReef]

my job is phosphate removal from sewage
and do a lot of reading in my spare time
i recently read a scientific study from Japan that suggested tourmaline my offer a solution to our biggest problem
we does a liquid very similar to GFO that binds phosphate to the sludge
our issue is we cant get rid of the sludge quick enough

and out of interest i have added them to my tank to see if there is any noticeable affect

Have you noticed any attributable difference after testing these out?

 

[jim_fitz]

nothing that i can measure
but the glass is being cleaned less, along with the skimmer cups and filter floss
maybe coincidental ? though i think not
no reduction noticed yet in phosphate though

and there has been an increase in P E too

 

[Tavero]

Hi,
As surprising as it is, these things actually seem to work...kinda. I think my zoa melting issue has slowed down a bit and newly infected colonies are starting to heal. The only thing i changed in the last few days is to throw the cubes into my tank.

This is an utterly ridiculous set of explanations, IMO.

That's because Maxspect has probably no idea how the chemistry works. They just replicated a technology of an expired patent.


Here is some tank water that i was stirring for six hours with one of these cubes. I had to increase the saturation of the pic but as you can see, the yellow tint was removed. Maybe they work as advertised...or maybe they are just made of zeolite crushed into a cube. Who knows.

 

[graziano]

Any other news from who's using it? Does it have any silicate release since tourmalines are a group of minerals belonging to the silicate class? thank you

 

[hart24601]

I bought some when they 1st were offered and didn’t notice any changes either way in my system. I still need to run carbon to get the water crystal clear.

 

[aaron186]

I bought my wife a Maxspect Dice AIO tank that came with 2 of them. So far the water seems clear. Just did the first water change and the bucket seemed to be without yellowing pigments. Not sure I would buy them over carbon though and will likely swap to a bag of carbon whenever the water looks yellow

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Gauging yellowness without before and after containers or photographs side by side is very tricky.

 

[aaron186]

Gauging yellowness without before and after containers or photographs side by side is very tricky.

Sure. Was just saying it seemed ok. I still would chose carbon. This was “free” with the tank