Sintered Glass

Rod

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Hi I use a mix of sintered glass "Siporax" and chicken bone sized crushed coral as my bio filtration medium. I saw a comment somewhere that using sintered glass was equivalent to starting a "nitrate factory". Perhaps someone could explain?
 
Rod where do you have it, in the sump ?

Are you using it as a trickle filter ?
 
Rod where do you have it, in the sump ?

Are you using it as a trickle filter ?
In the sump. I dont as a rule use trickle filters, but I would use the same mix if I did.
 
Rod, it's not so much the sintered glass or CC, but rather most mechanical flitration. The point is that it traps detritus which eventually causes nitrate to rise. I have never seen it being used, but by the sound of it, it will be difficult to clean the sintered glass. Therefore it will trap detritus and cause nitrate accumalation.
 
Rod, it's not so much the sintered glass or CC, but rather most mechanical flitration. The point is that it traps detritus which eventually causes nitrate to rise. I have never seen it being used, but by the sound of it, it will be difficult to clean the sintered glass. Therefore it will trap detritus and cause nitrate accumalation.
I have used it for years, and dont have a nitrate problem. I have six sumps all using the coral/sintered glass mix. Oh well we all have to do what we do.
 
I dont see too much of a problem in a fish only system, in a reef tank it will cause nitrates to rise as it does in fresh water systems, the reason for this is they are actually too efficient and produce NO3 at a rapid rate because of the oxygen rich enviroment, so the end result is NO3. When using just live rock you have anaerobic conditions created deeper in the rock so you have a full nitrogen cycle down to nitrogen gas. Similar to a DSB.
 
meat

hi all of you. i am new to this my first time. rod is correct in his sump stuff i have lots of tanks running on this system some for eight years and never been cleaned only the filter wool on the top. both tropical and marine. my first marine tank is 2500l which is now i think thirteen years old. nothing wrong
 
Peter Bee, welcome to MASA :D
 
thanks
my tank is 2.5m long 750mm water level and 800mm wide. i run a sump tank about a five foot, just crushed coral the normal way over under which is half the sump, the skimmers are two berlin red sea skimmers. a couple of powerheads in the tank i had four mh 250w lights on top swapped them for 16 30w tubes to see if it made a diffrence about three years ago, nothing changed as far a a photo i dont know how to do that
i have a 2.7/900/900 as well that is new 3 months it birst after about a year so i just got it sorted. rod will know more he built my first one. clever old thing he is what he has forgotton we wont be able to learn
 
In my Discus keeping days of the past I always wanted to try sintered glass, but it was way too expensive at the time.

Sintered glass was toted as having a very very high surface area. It was also very porous. Now depending on the flow around it it is possible that it does denitrification as well provided that the water flowing through it is relatively clean. Just a thought. I have no experience with the product.
 
In my Discus keeping days of the past I always wanted to try sintered glass, but it was way too expensive at the time.

Sintered glass was toted as having a very very high surface area. It was also very porous. Now depending on the flow around it it is possible that it does denitrification as well provided that the water flowing through it is relatively clean. Just a thought. I have no experience with the product.

Sintered glass is way cheaper today than in the past. We are now getting it from China. One should remember that a little goes a long way due to its porosity and thus its surface area. And yes it does help in denitrification.
I am on dangerous ground here but I believe the tanks using zeolites are based on the same principle. Zeolites have a crystaline structure where the bacteria can lie in wait for a morsal of ammonia or nitrate.
 
welcome to MASA peter.post some pics please
 
hi sorry i dont know how to do it. to stupid when it comes to that sort of thing,cant even use my cell camera propely
 
I am on dangerous ground here but I believe the tanks using zeolites are based on the same principle. Zeolites have a crystaline structure where the bacteria can lie in wait for a morsal of ammonia or nitrate.

The ZEOlites used in the ZEOvit method strip ammonia out of the water before it gets a chance to form nitrite. That's part of the system anyway.

I'm not too familar with sintered glass but can't imagine that it could have an anoxic zone that can harbour denitrifying bacteria ?
I could be wrong, but coming back to your original question.

The reason why aquarists have moved away from bio balls, bone coral etc is that it is too effecient in breaking down ammonia into nitrate. What happens is the nitrate builds up on the surface of the bio balls / bone coral etc until the capacity is reached and then it sheds into your system creating an imbalance. Another drawback is that it traps a lot of detritus, which is difficult to siphon outy unless you remove all the media everytime which would be a PITA.

Good quality live rock and a decent skimmer would provide all the biological and mechanical filtration that you need and provided you keep your system in balance and do regular maintenace.
 
hi again
this sump thing i ran my first 2500l tank on two fluid beds for about two years. there was not sutch a thing as chicken bone and all this other stuff in those days.they were taken out to be serviced and never replaced, the tank ran with nothing except the two skimmers for about five years. i have a huge amount of rock in the tank a thick bace of mixed sized coral, never had a problem the corals all thrived everything perfect. i then added a new sump with the coral stuff and nothing changed, so do all these fancy things realy make a diffrence or are we making things more difficult for ourselves
peter bee
 
Peter I do think we sometimes over-think these things.

Sintered glass and most other media other than maybe very open, non porous things like bioballs are likely to be great in a sump, especially if it is not flowing through very fast with high oxygen levels. I think lots of things could be used as a sand bed, creating low oxygen areas.

In your case all your rock and your sand bed will be helping to biologically filter your water properly with enough low oxygen zones etc.
 
Hi

The ZEOlites used in the ZEOvit method strip ammonia out of the water before it gets a chance to form nitrite. That's part of the system anyway.

Zeolites cant remove ammonia in salt water. Zeolites exchange a sodium ion for a NH3 ion, thus removing it from solution. As the concentration of sodium ions in salt water is so high this exchange cannot take place.

In fresh water this can take place. If you have a fresh water tank and you use zeolite, you can regenerate the exhausted zeolite by soaking it in a salt solution. Then the exchange is reversed. ie the zeolite gives up the ammonia and takes up sodium ions.
 
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hi rod
i see you are not only old but also also very wise
keep up the good work. and thanks for all the helpfull imfo
peter bee
 
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