ceramic rings meant for using in an aquarium

[shadylane]

I'm going to give these a try for column packing

[zed255]

I have enough of a product called Siporax to fill my column, it is a sintered glass material made for aquarium biological filters. It is shaped like rasching rings but the material itself is open pore, so liquid / vapour can also move through it and not solely around it. I just need to do a new sugar wash to see how it performs against my copper mesh and marbles. Was pricey though, but we will see if it is a bust or not.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B000A2 ... UTF8&psc=1

Oh, I can't see your linked product Shady.

[shadylane]

I can't see your linked product Shady.

ceramic bio rings.jpg

[cob]

the photomicrography in the siporax link reminded of the sintered glass grill bricks

I posted back in 2012 the link is now dead but grill brick is readily available.

Is there any estimate for the volume of eg. #5 box?

looking forward to your opinion. Shadylane

edit; web search did not find sintered glass grill brick, only pimice.

[shadylane]

Here's the SS packing I removed, the new ceramic rings and the best dephlegmator I've built so far

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[shadylane]

Is there any estimate for the volume of eg. #5 box?

Some were around 215 cubic inches or 3.5L

[acfixer69]

Got a link to them shady. I am looking for a packing in my 4" I now run lava rock. I'm happy but always looking to improve.

[shadylane]

Try searching amazon for
Aquacity Premier Bulk Bio Ceramic Rings Filter Media for Aquarium Koi Fish Pond Reef Filter.
I don't know how good their going to be, but they are about 3 times cheaper than Riesling rings

[acfixer69]

Got it Thanks . Going to look them over. Be watching your results.

[shadylane]

There was some white dust on the rings that was rinsed off.
Not much but some. There was maybe a big spoon full in the bottom of each 5 pound plastic bag
To do the required sacrificial run. the boiler was charged with around 6% clear water/ethanol
The CM rig was left in 100% reflux for a couple hours.
When the boiler was drained it had a slight white tint to it.

I'll know more about how these porous ceramic rings work after I've done a couple runs.

[cob]

Is there any estimate for the volume of eg. #5 box?

Some were around 215 cubic inches or 3.5L

thanks shadylane, that won't break the bank loading a column.

regarding my edit; I have a palm print on my forehead because

pumice is a form of sintered glass, similar to scoria but much

more porous, and considerably lighter.

[netmastr32]

Here this looks like similar item a lot cheaper

https://www.amazon.com/Fluval-PreFilter ... 22&sr=8-16

[shadylane]

If my math is right
The round rings I used cost $3.60 a pound and the polygon shaped rings are $4.50

[shadylane]

I am looking for a packing in my 4" I now run lava rock. I'm happy but always looking to improve.

This would be a good option from what I've seen so far
Lava rock is good but this is better.
One things for certain, the rings out perform SS scrubbers or marbles by a bunch.

[acfixer69]

I am looking for a packing in my 4" I now run lava rock. I'm happy but always looking to improve.

This would be a good option from what I've seen so far
Lava rock is good but this is better.
One things for certain, the rings out perform SS scrubbers or marbles by a bunch.

Will be looking into these are all one size fits all. I'll look I got a 48" 316 SS tube to fill.

[shadylane]

Will be looking into these are all one size fits all. I'll look I got a 48" 316 SS tube to fill.

20 pounds of the 1/2" rings filled my 4" column 71"ish deep

I also saw some that were 5/8 dia X 11/16 inches long
But I ordered the smaller 1/2" x 1/2" because I thought they would probably work better.

[acfixer69]

I think you are right with the 1/2 by1/2 that is bout the size of most of my lava rock.

[StillerBoy]

I think you are right with the 1/2 by1/2 that is bout the size of most of my lava rock.

With lava rocks size wise, which I have been experimenting on and off for the past few years, indicate that size is very important, especially going down in size..

I don't have a 4" column, but on the 3" am down to about 5/16 - 3/8" in size from about 1/2", and each time I reduced the size, I got an improvement in take off rate..

On the 2", I'm at about 3/16 - 1/4" in size and matching the take off I was getting before downsizing on the 3".. so I'm in the process of making a batch of very small ones in size, maybe average about less than 3/16" in size..

So from my experience with size with lava rocks, I would have to support the smaller size rings..

Mars

[acfixer69]

Size matters for sure and 3" seam to be the funky point as a 2" is a popular column diameter choice, low cost so there is lots of input. With the 4" diameter it is pricey so most build plates, but only a tad more then 3" so there is less quantitative knowledge on 3" packed.

[bronctoad]

Shady have you done anymore runs with the ceramic rings?
how do they clean up after a spirit run?

Bronctoad

[shadylane]

I'm not sure whether your asking about the rings or the spirit being cleaned up
After a couple runs, the ceramic rings look identical to new.
They do a good job. I'd recommend using them over anything else I've tried.
A friend normally uses 1/4 Inch Porcelain Berl saddles in a 2" column
He tried the ceramic rings and said they were as good, if not better and cost a lot less.

[bronctoad]

Thanks Shady
just needed a little more,( yup that's it! ) before I pulled the trigger

bronctoad

[Avo]

I have enough of a product called Siporax to fill my column, it is a sintered glass material made for aquarium biological filters. It is shaped like rasching rings but the material itself is open pore, so liquid / vapour can also move through it and not solely around it. I just need to do a new sugar wash to see how it performs against my copper mesh and marbles. Was pricey though, but we will see if it is a bust or not.



Ths Siporax is an interesting product - I just found out that it's available on Ebay. Would the Siporax stand up to the generated heat; with expansion would the porous glass fracture I guess you'll find out. Could be used with other column packing.

[Kansas]

I ended up giving this a shot after reading this thread and it's been working great so far. Bought 6 pounds of the Aquapapa (lol) brand from Amazon and it perfectly fills my 3" x 36" CCVM column. Replaced marbles and works better. Can easily get azeo vs ~90% with marbles.

Thanks for the suggestion.

[Yummyrum]

Thanks for the report Kansas .
Sounds like a winner

[Mozzie]

Took the plunge for my first build. 12lbs of 1/2 for a 4" * 41" section..
How / what are you guys using to hold these rings in place? I don't want to loose my marbles or rings. Oh yeah I don't have any marbles.

[OtisT]

Mozzie, I use a 3” screen section clamped to the bottom of my 3” packed column. My rings are 1/4” and the holes in the screen are about that size, so I added a small piece of heavy copper screen just to make sure any small or partial ring bits don’t fall through or clog holes.

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Ring size: Shady is using 1/2” rings in his 4” column. I am using these 1/4” rings in my 3”. I have not done any detailed experiments, but I’ve often wondered if my ring size should be a bit larger. I was thinking 3/8, not necessarily 1/2”, for my 3”. Right now, I feel like my power input is a bit limited before I reach flooding. I have a long list of things to do once I get my still up and running again, but trying a larger sized packing material is on that list. Once I get a larger size I will do some power comparisons with the different sizes to see where my power limits are.

Otis

[pope]

Thanks for bumping this guys, I’m taking y’all’s advice and upgrading my lava rocks to these. Mozzie I tack welded as 60% open area perf plate of stainless into the bottom of a 4” pipe, similar to what OtisT has done. It works well.

[seabass]

Is the consensus that these work better than copper mesh packing? I've only used copper mesh and when I look at the hetp calcs on the main page, it looks like ss scrubbies outperform the ceramic rings by a considerable amount. I'm guessing copper mesh is somewhere between the ceramic rings and ss scrubbies in those calculators.

Are the calculators way off? When I plug in my info it tells me I should get around 10 theoretical plates with scrubbies and 5 with 6mm rings. That's a hell of a difference.

[zed255]

I think some of the calculator data might be suspect. My last reflux run using marbles outperformed my copper mesh, which in theory shouldn't happen.