Recharging zeovit

[reefgineer]

Has anyone tried recharging their zeovit? I have read that it is possible to recharge zeolite to 75% of original capacity by soaking it in a high salt concentration solution. The solution will cause it to release back the absorbed ammonia. Not sure about the other stuff like phosphate and nitrate. Also found some info that some zeolite can be recharge with high temp. Anyone else have more information on this matter?

[Aged Salt]

Hi, good question, which comes up from time to time. The difficulty is knowing what technique would restore the stones back to their original state. Thomas Pohl has tried, unsuccessfully, due to the dead bacteria, the elements lost can't be replaced, even if we knew what that entailed. Having said this, I'd like to hear from anyone trying the salt renewal process with the zeolites & their results. thnx. Bob

[pygoplites]

Hi, good question, which comes up from time to time. The difficulty is knowing what technique would restore the stones back to their original state. Thomas Pohl has tried, unsuccessfully, due to the dead bacteria, the elements lost can't be replaced, even if we knew what that entailed. Having said this, I'd like to hear from anyone trying the salt renewal process with the zeolites & their results. thnx. Bob

I have read somewhere that porosity of zeolith can be emptied boiling the material after full drying period. Somebody knows something about?

[invincible569]

There is a method supposedly, but its a dangerous one. Thats all I remember.

[nyfireman3097]

What about using old Zeo rocks to glue frags too ?
Nick

[t0mmy108]

The guys at Home Depot said put them out in direct sun.

[reefgineer]

The direct sun thing might not be that different from baking it in the oven for an hour or so. I think I will do a little experiment with the salt method and the oven method. Not looking for the full recharge but anything above 50% might be worth while.

[nyfireman3097]

cant wait to see the end results on this one
Nick

[invert phil]

Did anyone get any results from this? Doing searches on recharging zeolites in general, and they all say either of the following methods;
Drying in sun,
Drying in an oven for 30 minutes at 250 fahrenheit,
soaking in a sodium hydroxide solution,
soaking in a strong sodium chloride solution,

Plus how do you know if it has worked? Prehaps using a known concentration of ammonium chloride solution to check if it works and see if it still absorbs ammonium compared to a brand new piece of zeovit.

[Aged Salt]

Hi Phil, as you can imagine recharging the zeolites is difficult at best[I'm not aware of any household method of doing so] & probably associated with the zeolites loss of properties as they are used with ZEOvit. Bob

[invert phil]

Just wondered what results people got, but from the sudden lack of posts in this thread after people said they were going to post results. I can only assume it either didn't work or people were scared to post how to recharge zeolites here because it would be a disadvantage to zeovit. Most other zeolites and zeolites used in inductry can be recharged so unsure why no one else has posted on this subject before...