Brightwell bio brick

[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.

[IronChefItaly]

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.

[SoloSK71]

Originally Posted by IronChefItaly

If the biological media contains reactive sulfur then it must also eventually exhaust?

Correct, the sulphur will be used up by the bacteria that perform anaerobic nitrate removal in the NOx brick. The Bio brick does not contain the sulphur and does not really do much nitrate removal.

Charles

[Animal-Chin]

Just thought I'd up this to see if people are still happy with it? I'm done with carbon dosing, my system seems to hate it. Are you guys still happy with the brick?

[IronChefItaly]

Originally Posted by Animal-Chin

Just thought I'd up this to see if people are still happy with it? I'm done with carbon dosing, my system seems to hate it. Are you guys still happy with the brick?

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).