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]

Originally Posted by Coral Hoarder

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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..