Anyone using nitraguard biocubes?

[asylumdown]

Wondering if any Canadians have experience with these. They got pretty lambasted on reef central because of some truly ridiculous claims by the manufacturer, but as far as I can see they're just a different delivery method for solid carbon.

Things in the tank are bad enough I'm not really worried about testing new things out and I've not been doing anything to intentionally control nitrates since April or May, so I put a bag of them in my sump directly below the outlet of the overflow pipe (I run a durso), so they're getting TONS of oxygen.

In the last week and a half they've turned from snow white to almost red wine colored and the ones getting the most bubbles look like they've dissolved a whole bunch.

So far no negative effects on the inhabitants, and the corals are continuing to tepidly recover from the reno disaster.

[Coral Hoarder]

They pulled lots of nutrition out of my tank wich caused a mass Lps bleach

[asylumdown]

So they worked as advertised?

[Coral Hoarder]

Idk what they did all I know is they killed all my corals

[JmeJReefer]

Working for me. Using as directed.... Bomb method in sump.


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[halwake]

Been using for over a month. Cleaning glass much less, LPS does not seem as happy, SPS looks fine, clam and anemone all good. My RODI unit had put some crap in the tank after the DI resin must have expired and got a cyano out break. This had cleared up now with the cubes, I have heavy fish load and feed pretty heavy as well. Have the cubes placed next to my skimmer output. Seem to do what they say, like I said though, my torch, and hammer coral has not seemed super happy.

Hope this helps.

[asylumdown]

Idk what they did all I know is they killed all my corals


Ooooh yah that's no good. How much did you use relative to tank volume?

[asylumdown]

Been using for over a month. Cleaning glass much less, LPS does not seem as happy, SPS looks fine, clam and anemone all good. My RODI unit had put some crap in the tank after the DI resin must have expired and got a cyano out break. This had cleared up now with the cubes, I have heavy fish load and feed pretty heavy as well. Have the cubes placed next to my skimmer output. Seem to do what they say, like I said though, my torch, and hammer coral has not seemed super happy.



Hope this helps.


Yah I haven't seen any cyano yet, but I've also stopped using GFO. I noticed my elegance looked a little angry last night and my one acan colony hasn't really been inflating. But my cowfish also nibbles it when his teeth need grinding (hence why I only have one), so it might be coincidence.

What I was so surprised by was the marked colour change in such a short period. Bio pellets shrink at a nearly imperceptible rate, but even if you spill them in your sump they're as white as the day you bought them 6 months later. A colour change is one of the best indicators of chemical reactions, including biologically mediated reactions.

Who knows, maybe they put some colour changing indicator in the mix to make you think something is happening, but it's a pretty impressive feedback

[asylumdown]

Any reason to not put their bag inside a filter sick? I took the socks off when I hung them under the outflow of the overflow, but I prefer the socks and it seems like it would actually contain the bubbles from the durso around the cubes better

[SmallFry]

I've been running them since the end of August. I'd hoped they would get rid of an algae problem I was having. I've noticed that skimmer output is increased and it's darker.

The algae hasn't really decreased, in fact its increased. To be fair I haven't been as diligent as I should and the tank has been through quite a lot. My GFO is probably spent a while ago, but if the nitrate was dropping I'd have expected the algae to reduce and get cyano or something like that.

I have had some snails die - probably of old age, I've had them for years. I'm also pretty sure that my dart fish have one by one died in the rock somewhere, so that could be loading them up beyond their capacity.

Either way I haven't noticed any adverse reaction from the corals, in fact they've really started to grow since I started sanding drywall mud down there..

[asylumdown]

My experience with algae is that you can't get rid of it with nutrient reduction alone. Prevent it maybe, slow it down for sure, but actually killing it would require a nutrient reduction so severe I doubt your corals would survive. You'd need to pair it with some other control technique, be that manual removal, a predator, or an algicide. I've noticed a marked decrease in the rate the algae I do have is growing, but the hair algae that's invaded the dead coral skeletons I put in my sump (away from my hungry rabbit fish) certainly isn't receding.

Mind you, it's only been two weeks.

I'm also assisting it with phozdown. Phosphates were testing as high as 0.8ppm after I stopped using gfo, and I've been veeeeeery slowly bringing that down with phozdown. Interestingly, the rate it was falling was almost imperceptible as I'm freaked about ODing it so wasn't adding much every day, but within a week of adding the cubes it went from 0.08 to 0.00, and I decreased the amount of phozdown I dosed per day twice in that time.

[Coral Hoarder]

I used the recommended amount lol

[asylumdown]

I'm still having trouble figuring out what that is. All the recommendations I've seen are in mL/gallon, but they're solid, odd shaped cubes. I wish they'd do it by weight

[canadianbudz604]

Lps are ****ed because the cubes work too well and too fast? Have u guys done any tests with these cubes? Do they work? I've read of reviews about them working very well...

[reefwithareefer]

I am using them as directed. At first they did not seem to work at all, but over time they have lived up to what they advertised. I have had no issues with any corals, fish, softies etc etc. They do turn red after awhile. I placed them by a high flow area as directed.
I have a 180 gal DT, 90 gal refugium and a 75 gal sump. I run Rowa and carbon as well.

[Reefer+]

Resurrecting this post!

I started using Ocean Lab Nitra Guard w/Titanium to combat a random algae outbreak after introducing some new corals.

I added the cubes into my setup beginning of March using the bomb method.

It's been over a month and I've noticed the algae reduction. However in some areas of the tank, hair and bryopsis algae wont die. They keep coming back to those areas. I've tried killing them using Hydrogen peroxide but they come back after 1 week. Btw I never had hair and bryopsis prior to the corals I introduced...

All my corals and fish are doing very well so no issues there.

Parameters looks good.

The one issue I noticed with the cubes is the smell. I'm getting a nasty sulphur smell. I've checked the air stone and added a second one just to make sure. Its located in the sump. As long as its submerged the smell is virtually gone. However when I pull it out of the water, it smells bad.

I've tried contacting Ocean Labs and found out that was a waste of time as I'm not getting a hold of anyone and no responses back to my emails.

I would like to think I'm doing everything right but clearly I'm missing something. .

It does appear to be working. Perhaps, not as good as I would like it to, but still glass cleaning has gone down and there is a noticeable algae reduction.

Thoughts on how to get rid of the smell? I read online that it's lacking oxygen. In my case, I highly doubt it. Direct flow might be an issue but I still can't see how that would make a difference as water flow is constant in the sump and the air stones are creating a lot of water movement.

I've attached some pictures. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200422/d0502d0f879b0777caef0b9db092be0a.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200422/383b093658cf926c30bdb21df36983ec.jpg

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[juanlien]

never experienced it. but this is a very interesting discussion to followhttps://babang.xyz/assets/11/o.png