Should I add Marine Pure to my Biocube?

[FlyinBryan]

Absolutely!! I did with great success! I filled the very first chamber with the balls and a bunch of live rock rubble. Kept nitrates low. The 2nd chamber might have had some as well plus it was a fuge. Good luck!!

 

[Newb73]

The MarinePure is only part of the story (leaving phosphate) while other methods take them out in a more balanced fashion (e.g., macroalgae).[emoji3]

It's the nitrate you have to fight though.

I can get phosphates out w easy to use media like GFO.

Once a month i test for phosphates and that test determines if i do an 80 20 mix of gac w gfo, straight gfo or no gfo at all.

A few months ago i ran only GFO. Then 2 months ago no GFO. Have an 80/20 mix currently.

Im lazy so i only run one reactor now days.

I am getting fancy though, just ordered an inline flow meter so i can keep an eye on the flow through it better..

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It's the nitrate you have to fight though.

I can get phosphates out w easy to use media like GFO.

Once a month i test for phosphates and that test determines if i do an 80 20 mix of gac w gfo, straight gfo or no gfo at all.

A few months ago i ran only GFO. Then 2 months ago no GFO. Have an 80/20 mix currently.

Im lazy so i only run one reactor now days.

I am getting fancy though, just ordered an inline flow meter so i can keep an eye on the flow through it better..

I'm not sure why you have had to "fight" nitrate. There are lots of good ways to reduce it,if needed, including liquid organic carbon dosing, biopellets, growing macroalgae, ATS, sulfur denitrators, carbon denitrators, more skimming, deep sand beds, organic reducing media (such as Purigen), and various denitrification media.

While I do not like all of these, I would choose many of them before I'd use Marine Pure for the reasons I have already outlined.

 

[Newb73]

I'm not sure why you have had to "fight" nitrate. There are lots of good ways to reduce it,if needed, including liquid organic carbon dosing, biopellets, growing macroalgae, ATS, sulfur denitrators, carbon denitrators, more skimming, deep sand beds, organic reducing media (such as Purigen), and various denitrification media.

While I do not like all of these, I would choose many of them before I'd use Marine Pure for the reasons I have already outlined.

That's fair. Like i said i am about to send in an icp test in the coming weeks.

My experience has been that there is no media that really helps w nitrate, biopellets stimulate cyano, and while water changes help, they aren't really a solution and depending on source water, I've seen lots of large water stiumlate cyano and seemingly do nothing to lower nitrate levels i was seeing on hobbie grade test kits. Never tried purigen but i do have a dsb in my sump and way more rock and substrate in my system than most run these days. Liquid carbon dosing was next on my list of things to try but it was never needed.

Not until i stopped doing large water changes, stop biopellets, stop skimming and started growing chaeto and running a sulfur denitrator did i actually see my nitrate levels go to where my goal had been which i would characterize as "barely to undetectable" I strongly suspect stopping large water changes and going to continuous awc also played a large role in stabilizing my system.

Oddly enough, many of the conventional and known tested/"tried and true" ways of dealing with nitrates had either no impact in my system or seemed to make it worse.

With a chemistry background you may or may not appreciate this but such reactions are known phenomena in complex biological systems and occur in everything from marine biology to pharmacological engineering.

In medicine we call it an "idiopathic" and sometimes paradoxical reaction (where a medicine has darn near the exact OPPOSITE effect of what studies have shown).

Idiopathic effects by definition are somewhat rare but known occurrences in complex biological systems that seem to only occur in a few very specific atypical individuals...or i guess in this case..an atypical tank.

Because of the number if variables involved with the interactions in a complex biological system the exact mechanisms are often never discovered. While there is almost certainly a reasonable scientific reason for the strange outcomes, the most anyone can do is guess.

So it comes down to learning ones specific tank and a LOT of testing and observation to figure out what works....and occasionally with surprising and unexpected results and conclusions.

Many of the step I've had to take to stabilize my nitrate were counter intuitive to say the least.

At one point i was physically removing cyano from my rocks twice a week with a tooth brush. Now i have almost none. A fight it has been indeed.

Phosphates i could lower in a matter of days with simple GFO...and doing so by tge way seemed to have zero true impact on cyano. The nitrate issue for me was a diffetent animal. I have no clue why my system behaved as it did, i still suspect there is something unique to my source water or origin of my rock or my bioload and feeding schedule...??? For a period of probably 6 months both nitrate and cyano were an unsolveable enigma.

It is also part of the reason i have extended out what i consider a "mature tank" from 1 year out to two years as these problems happened AFTER year one in this system.

Be that as it may, if my ICP test comes back high for aluminum you can rest assured ill be pulling it out now that things are stable.

Currently the only nuisance problems i have are diatoms on one end of the sand bed and i havent had to go in and clean anything going on 90 days (unless you count the mag float on my glass and cleaning my par monitor). I pull lots if chaeto out though.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

In medicine we call it an "idiopathic" and sometimes paradoxical reaction (where a medicine has darn near the exact OPPOSITE effect of what studies have shown).

Hey, are you a doc? My real world job is inventing and developing pharmaceuticals and therapeutic devices.

 

[Twisted_Blenny]

this may sound like a total noob question but what determines a high or low nutrient tank? high or low Nitrates and phosphates?

 

[Newb73]

Hey, are you a doc? My real world job is inventing and developing pharmaceuticals and therapeutic devices.

Well heck, i don't lecture you about chemical reactions in complex biologics.

I am not a doctor per say, i teach doctors and have a biology background.

I could teach in regular medical school (or so my physician students tell me) but instead i do continuing ed stuff for more experienced physicians to help them stay abreast of the current standards and capture patients clinical presentations more in line with the state of practice.

I can't prescribe medications but i can run a code blue and function at emergency room or intensive care management, at least..once upon a time i did.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Well heck, i don't lecture you about chemical reactions in complex biologics.

I am not a doctor per say, i teach doctors and have a biology background.

I could teach in regular medical school (or so my physician students tell me) but instead i do continuing ed stuff for more experienced physicians to help them stay abreast of the current standards and capture patients clinical presentations more in line with the state of practice.

I can't prescribe medications but i can run a code blue and function at emergency room or intensive care management, at least..once upon a time i did.

Great.

If you ever teach about treating hyperphosphatemia in kidney disease, Renagel and Renvela are mine. For high cholesterol and/or diabetes, Welchol/cholestagel is also mine.

 

[sebastiaan1985]

Hey, are you a doc? My real world job is inventing and developing pharmaceuticals and therapeutic devices.

Hi Randy,
that is interesting! I work for a MedTech company focussing on therapeutics and diagnostics.
With a focus on kidney disease in paediatrics.
Can I send you an email with what we do?
Regards,
Sebastiaan

 

[Newb73]

Great.

If you ever teach about treating hyperphosphatemia in kidney disease, Renagel and Renvela are mine. For high cholesterol and/or diabetes, Welchol/cholestagel is also mine.

It is never all that surprising when you correct me for drawing an incorrect reefing conclusion from something i have observed, but suddenly your preference for liquid carbon dosing just makes a whole lot more sense.

So you're famous in ways i didn't even know.

It's like when i found out my college girlfriends dad invented SUVA (otherwise known as hp81), the cfc replacement for air conditioners.

Dinner at the her parents got progressively more intimidating from there going forward.

 

[Newb73]

Hi Randy,
that is interesting! I work for a MedTech company focussing on therapeutics and diagnostics.
With a focus on kidney disease in paediatrics.
Can I send you an email with what we do?
Regards,
Sebastiaan

Ha ha...

Now this is the "linkedin" professional page gor reefers in health care.