Should I add Marine Pure to my Biocube?

[Mombo]

The middle chamber of my biocube 29g is empty. Was wondering if yall think I should add Marine Pure balls or something back there?

Originally the bioballs are in the middle chamber and I read those can cause troubles.

What do yall think?

 

[Krzydmnd]

The middle chamber of my biocube 29g is empty. Was wondering if yall think I should add Marine Pure balls or something back there?

Originally the bioballs are in the middle chamber and I read those can cause troubles.

What do yall think?

I put ceramic disc's in a bag and used a zip tie to suspend it in the water flow. But if you have around a pound of live rock per gallon I believe you don't really need more biological filtration than that.

Watch your nitrates over time if you add the balls.

 

[Merv49]

The middle chamber of my biocube 29g is empty. Was wondering if yall think I should add Marine Pure balls or something back there?

Originally the bioballs are in the middle chamber and I read those can cause troubles.

What do yall think?

Marine pure is nothing to fear. Good stuff

 

[lbacha]

I'm adding a slab of marine pure to my sump for my 8g nano, tons of surface area and doesn't restrict flow

 

[Mombo]

Ok I was just worried if it would do something similar to the bioballs and end up trapping stuff back there and becoming a nitrate factory. I could prob put them in a bag and suspend them in the water vs just having them lay all over the place.

 

[40B Knasty]

I have heard about bioballs not being great. Flat plastic. So I can't see how that is going to hold tons of good bacteria.
Marine Pure will give you anaerobic bacteria which turn nitrates into the gas form to bubble up and out of your tank. The flow through a block is second to none. The porosity is 3-4x better than any live rock. Some people talk about aluminum will leach into your tank from the block, but honestly to me it is just another number chaser thing in the hobby. They work amazing for both my tanks. If you ever happen to get any clogging. Just pull the block out and swish it back forth in a bucket of old tank water when you are doing a water change.
If you can do a algae turf scrubber. Try that

 

[Kyl]

I found the block went to mush over the year I had it, especially in areas with direct water flow contact (the facing side). For that reason I removed it from the sump and threw a bunch of pond matrix there instead. That's the only negative I had with the product.

 

[TerraFerma]

I ran the balls for about a year. They shed crumbs here and there but nothing that would make them look smaller to the eye. While they didn't trap too much detritus the area below them made for a detritus collecting area. I've since removed them and replaced them with the plate standing up in down next to my skimmer. They are delicate - wouldn't use them to prop up a skimmer or pump or anything.

 

[Mombo]

Oh dang that would be cool for a skimmer stand if they wouldn't crush over time haha. Im going to try some in my back chamber and see how they go. It shouldnt be getting hit by any direct flow so hopefully they will last.

I am slightly worried it will get kinda awful below them. I will have to keep an eye on that.

 

[Ranjib]

Don’t. Real estate is limited in such setup. Use simple media cab with purigen, chemipure elite and gfo. Or just chemipure blue and gfo. There’s nopox as well to neutralize nitrate. All of these methods will have much higher nitrate reduction
My 2 cents

 

[Mombo]

Hmm. The area back there is just open as is. I have a tower on one side that holds a filter pad and carbon / chemipure if needed. But that only takes up half the space.

 

[Ranjib]

Hmm. The area back there is just open as is. I have a tower on one side that holds a filter pad and carbon / chemipure if needed. But that only takes up half the space.

Heater ? Skimmer ? Fuge? All are better than marine pure block I think

 

[40B Knasty]

Chemipure Elite(which is G.F.O. Read the container) and GFO is for phosphates. Purigen will help absorb nitrates and ammonia, but it is not permanent or a biological media to hold good bacteria except when it is exhausted, but you will need to replace it. Marine pure is a biological media to help break down your nitrogen cycle. Where the others are chemical media that will have to be replaced. You are wanting to remove your permanent bad biological media(bioballs).

 

[40B Knasty]

A few things to add about all this. If you decide to use the marine pure spheres. Put them in a few bags so they are easy to remove them when you need to do maintenance and it will help with less damage to the spheres. If you use a block. A bread knife will cut it like styrofoam and you can cut it into your desired sizing to fit in the tray.
Purigen is a great product. Get a bag that can hold fine material.
If you are trying to remove phosphates. Use phosguard. I have used both Chemipure Elite and Phosguard. My experience with G.F.O. was bad. It absorbed phosphates way to fast and melted a yellow hammer and Aussie gold torch. Phosguard had a slower absorption and wasn't such a shock to the system. You will also need a bag that can hold fine materials for the Phosguard, but not as fine needed for Purigen. When Purigen is exhausted. Yes you can recharge it by bleaching it, but I will highly recommend not doing that. It lasts longer than all chemical medias that I have heard of. Sometimes up to 6 months.

 

[Ranjib]

A few things to add about all this. If you decide to use the marine pure spheres. Put them in a few bags so they are easy to remove them when you need to do maintenance and it will help with less damage to the spheres. If you use a block. A bread knife will cut it like styrofoam and you can cut it into your desired sizing to fit in the tray.
Purigen is a great product. Get a bag that can hold fine material.
If you are trying to remove phosphates. Use phosguard. I have used both Chemipure Elite and Phosguard. My experience with G.F.O. was bad. It absorbed phosphates way to fast and melted a yellow hammer and Aussie gold torch. Phosguard had a slower absorption and wasn't such a shock to the system. You will also need a bag that can hold fine materials for the Phosguard, but not as fine needed for Purigen. When Purigen is exhausted. Yes you can recharge it by bleaching it, but I will highly recommend not doing that. It lasts longer than all chemical medias that I have heard of. Sometimes up to 6 months.

+1
I used to use Chemipure Elite + GFO in my Biocube 29. Before moving to chemipure blue. I had started with just chemipure elite, and then had to add gfo to control phosphate (i used to feed heavily, and tank was LPS /softies during those days, and no skimmer). Later , while introducing sps I introduced skimmer, then chemipure blue.

 

[Mombo]

Ah yes I can see how space would be limited with a skimmer. I not planning on adding a skimmer as my new big tank will be my main tank when its done cycling.

I make my own bags of carbon and gfo when I need it instead of buying chemipure usually. I was looking at chemipure blue and elite and decided I could just do it myself haha.

 

[Newb73]

I run a bit of a frankenstein refugium sump.

A deep layer of miracle mud and on top of that gravel, pieces of reef rock, fluval media and a layer of marine pure spheres.

On the top is completely covered with chaeto under kessil grow lights.

This is also where the effluent from my nitrate reactor feeds which seeds the area continuously with anerobic nitrate reducing bacteria.

It is so effective that when i turn or harvest my chaeto...it will have so much hydrogen sulfide gas that you can hear it escaping and see if fizz, like rice krispy treats and alka seltzer.

I feed 4-5 cubes, 2 nori sheets abd 2 kinds of pellets per day and have near undectable nitrates most of the time.

 

[RobertP]

How can the marine pure blocks be a bad thing? They take up less space than live rock and pound for pound are more porous. Even in my small frag tank I keep a few of the balls in the back where you cant see them.

 

[TerraFerma]

How can the marine pure blocks be a bad thing? They take up less space than live rock and pound for pound are more porous. Even in my small frag tank I keep a few of the balls in the back where you cant see them.

Exactly! It's tougher to notice will the ball form of Marine Pure but the block can absorb a startling amount of water. Live rock not so much.

 

[Ranjib]

How can the marine pure blocks be a bad thing? They take up less space than live rock and pound for pound are more porous. Even in my small frag tank I keep a few of the balls in the back where you cant see them.

I dont think I suggested its a bad thing for tank. My suggestion was in the line "I could see other things being more useful in biocube mid-chamber".
I get the point around sustainability , that chemipure et al are chemical filtration and needs to be restocked every now and so, while marine pure being a biological medium is better.

There are some concern around Al leaching (I cant validate that), and detritus trap (which occasional rinse should fix).
I'll still prefer skimmer or/and refugium over marine pure block. But thats mostly because I had bad time with detritus build up (i went almost bare bottom for the same reason as well). ... but thats just another extreme.