Quote:
Originally Posted by Bblinks
I have it fully submerged in my tank and it has been doing wonders. NO3 went from 10 plus to 2 ppm in less than 2 weeks. These blocks are embedded with sulfur hence the dramatic reduction in NO3. I got another one coming from JL aquatics as they will be carrying it. Great product, would recommend anyone who has trouble keeping their NO3 down to give it a try.
|
If the biological media contains reactive sulfur then it must also eventually exhaust?
Similar product, I decided to experiment with the MarinePure 8x8x4" brick and two quarts of spheres with my Red Sea Reefer 250 build and so far I'm quite happy. It's difficult to say with any certainty how much of an effect them being present in my sump has on the phosphate and nitrate reduction.
Nutrient import…
- medium bioload, heavy fish feeding
- BRS reef chili and phytoplankton 2-3 times a week
- 3ml of Red Sea coran energy A & B daily.
Nutrient export…
- Bubble Magus NAC3.5 skimmer
- Chaeto
- 2 ml of Red Sea NOPO-X daily (started at 5ml when my system was new)
- 20% water changes bimonthly
All that said, I am able to maintain very low values of 0.02 PO4 and 0 NO3 – I'm currently working on elevating the NO3 to 0.3 ppm ideally. I've built my system with the main considerations of it being stable with little maintenance and simple and after a few months of messing around with different products I think it's finally working and I think the extra biological media has a sizable influence. It would however, be nice to see the results of someone implementing bio bricks to a mature system where variables were limited so the effect could be easier to measure. Also, after 5 months my brick shows no visible signs of degrading.
http://imgur.com/nvxVcEv
http://imgur.com/ADp8SPy
Pictures for reference. My overflow feeds into the rear, right chamber that is loaded about half way with MarinePure spheres – this is also where my carbon is dosed. From there, the water flows through the filter socks and into the larger chamber in the front. This front chamber houses my skimmer as well as a flock of macro algae that sits on a 8x8x4" Marinepure brick – spray bar was mounted to the end of my carbon reactor loop to aerate and keep the algae clear of detritus. Lastly, water flows from the front chamber over a baffle and into a bubble trap that houses more MarinePure spheres and into the return pump chamber.