Alundum air stone reef safe?

Tuffloud1 · Mar 26, 2021

I got a Hygger S50 airstone. Pamphlet states it is “made of high-quality white alundum, sintered at high temperature of 1300 degrees Celsius. Suitable for both freshwater and saltwater”.

Is Alundum reef safe?

dhnguyen · Mar 26, 2021

Tuffloud1 said:
I got a Hygger S50 airstone. Pamphlet states it is “made of high-quality white alundum, sintered at high temperature of 1300 degrees Celsius. Suitable for both freshwater and saltwater”.

Is Alundum reef safe?

alundum - a substance made of fused alumina. alumina, aluminium oxide, aluminum oxide

Since aluminum will corrode in saltwater I can't imagine that this would be safe to be used in a reef.
What are you using the airstone for?

Tuffloud1 · Mar 26, 2021

I’m running a high powered Alita air pump pulling outside air and injecting into my skimmer.

I need to bleed the air manifold even more to relieve the pump so wanted to throw an air stone in the overflow section of my sump to purge even more CO2.

Tuffloud1 · Mar 26, 2021

dhnguyen said:
alundum - a substance made of fused alumina. alumina, aluminium oxide, aluminum oxide

Since aluminum will corrode in saltwater I can't imagine that this would be safe to be used in a reef.
What are you using the airstone for?

I saw that it had aluminum oxide.

Hoping someone can confirm if it is reef safe. Says suitable for saltwater on the box.

kaylajoy · Mar 26, 2021

Aluminum oxide won't corrode. It is the corrosion product from aluminum. They use it to make sharpening stones for knives. Can't say for sure but I don't think it would dissolve in water or anything.

dhnguyen · Mar 26, 2021

You can try these. I do know these are reef safe. My buddy who used to have a 1000 gallon reef had a DIY 50 gallon Air stone skimmer and he used these.

Search results for: 'fine pore'

pentairaes.com

Here are some pics of his build

Skimmer

monkeyCmonkeyDo · Mar 26, 2021

Ive had a protein skimmer like that. Was a 12"diameter 5g bucket basically. Lol. Only had two big airstones and a big airpump. Just like that one. Thats a really kool home diy skimmer. Ty for sharing

D

dhnguyen · Mar 26, 2021

monkeyCmonkeyDo said:
Ive had a protein skimmer like that. Was a 12"diameter 5g bucket basically. Lol. Only had two big airstones and a big airpump. Just like that one. Thats a really kool home diy skimmer. Ty for sharing

D

Yeah it was amazing seeing that huge skimmer at work. It was producing about a 1 gallon of dark nasty skimmate a day and all powered by an Alita pump (105W) and some of those Aquatic-Eco Systems fine pore diffuser stones.

Righteous · Mar 26, 2021

Aluminum oxide is used in phosphate lowering media like Phosguard. It’s possibly reef safe, although it’s also been shown to sometimes increase aluminum levels in tank, which seems to have the most negative impact on soft and leather corals.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 26, 2021

Agree that aluminum oxide is likely reef safe. Only concern is some dissolution of aluminum, and that effect from an airstone is likely pretty small compared to much larger uses with binders like Phosguard.

Tuffloud1 · Mar 26, 2021

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Agree that aluminum oxide is likely reef safe. Only concern is some dissolution of aluminum, and that effect from an airstone is likely pretty small compared to much larger uses with binders like Phosguard.

I was hoping you would chime in.

As always, thank you Randy.