No signs of my brick degrading as others have experienced - though mine is a Marine Pure product, not Brightwell.

I've been adjusting and experimenting with carbon dosing for over a year now. It took me a while to dial everything in because I upgraded my system in between and I've also juggled many of the popular nutrient export methods to find a combination that worked for me and my system. To not go into too much detail, the issues I experienced with carbon dosing all revolve around using too much and keeping my nutrients too low relative to the rest of my parameters. I've lowered my alkalinity and calcium from 10.0 dkh and 450 to 7.8 dkh and 410, phosphate has always naturally settled at 0.03 ppm and lastly I use to keep my nitrates at 0.5 ppm but get much better growth and color in my SPS when I keep it around 5 ppm. These adjustments have also allowed me to become less reliant on my carbon dosing (2 ml of NOPOX a day on a 250 liter system).

Ideally you're going to want to carbon dose with the brick , unless you have other means to manage nutrients. These bricks are really nothing more than a product with massive , massive surface area for bacteria to live. If you want to drive the bacterial population to higher levels, you're probably going to have to carbon dose , at least minimally. Now if you're managing nutrients with other means as well , like a refugium etc , then the brick may help , especially if you're running a bare bottom tank , or do not have a lot of live rock in the system.

Have to admit I have not monitored mine close enough to comment. Somewhat bought it as preventative but I can say my brick is a lot smaller and I got it in December. If this sight wasn't so lame for posting pics if show it