Starting my Nitra-Guard Bio-cubes adventure

[Achilles]

Hello all,

So I just got this product today. I got 3000ml. I have a 300 gallon with a 55 gallon sump that is half full. I have a big bio load in terms of fish. I am going to see about tracking everything to see if these work as claimed. I am just going to get another couple of test kits to have confirm levels. With my current test kits I have around 40ish nitrates and 1.0-2.0 phosphates. According to the place I bought them this amount should be enough. I am running two skimmers, one rated for 317  gallon ( i doubt it ) skimming light and the other rated for a 180 skimming dark.
Fish load:
Large 9-10 inch Sohal tang
Adult emperor
Semi Adult Queen
large flagfin angel
Powder blue
2 yellow tangs
large naso
moorish idol
Bio color angel
Coral Beauty
Flame Angel
two latz clowns
percula
lawnmore blenny
two mandarins
3 bangi cardinals
saddleback butterfly
copperband butterfly
another butterfly (not sure the name)
cleaner wrasse
two yellow tail damsels
three strip damsel
a hawkfish

So I have tried an algea turf scrubber ( keeps the glass clean), dosing VSV, phos down( works great but only tempary). None of these have gotten my levels down. I feed manly pellets ( new life and new era). I cook my rock about two years ago  to start of fresh after moving into a new place. So I will be update the thread as I go if there is interest.

[veron]

Hmm, to be honest I don't know how you'll ever keep up unless its constant water changes. That is a HUGE bioload to say the least. I know your an experienced reefer/fish guy but your gonna have a hard time with water quality
unless you get a bigger tank or lose some fish. As you can tell I'm a backer of the low bioload systems but I know its hard with all the nice fish. In reality once you factor in the rock, theres less water than a person thinks.
Have you ever considered removing some fish to make tank work easier?

[NjOyRiD]

Wow, I thought I had a huge bio load!

you should post your parameters before and after to see the results
good luck!

[Hookup]

Even without over-feeding that is a lot of fish-waste.

What skimmer do you have?   This would be, imo, the best thing for helping you out.  A massive beckett driven skimmer like an MR-6... 

[Achilles]

I have a skimz 161 and a SRO cone 2000. I do understand people take on the fish load, however I can also find many examples of higher bioload than mine and able to keep beautiful reefs. I also found that a skimmer sometimes has very little effect on nitrates and phosphates. I used to have a 210 with a smaller bioload and ran a Reefloo Ocra Pro 250 on it and still have to deal with both issues. For me, what these products liked pellets and these cubes will do is help make skimmer to remove these issue better. If all goes right I will have the Pro 250 back up and running as well. So this should be an interesting journey, it might not work at all or even be able to do anything but it these cubes do work on a tank and bioload like this, that would really prove something in my eyes. So just got my red sea test kit for both nitrates and phosphates. So I will be doing my weekly testing this saturday and start from there.

[Papou]

Thet product will help you with your nitrate - phos you will have to top it up more often.

[Achilles]

Well I know its been a bit but I had to wait until boxing week sales in order to get the air pump and other stuff I needed. So I also got the new red sea algae control test kit which has a nitrate and phosphate pro test kits. This kit is getting really good reviews. I also used a api test for both. Because I am dealing in the high range, getting an exact number is harder. So with both test kits I am getting around 40 ppm for nitrates and 1.5-2 for phosphates. I have soaked the media in ro water as directed for 24 hours and have now three lts in two of the supplied mess bags with the bomb method as this is the most recommends way to employ this. I will test weekly. I have done no other changes to my system.

[Pablo]

So have you tested you parameters ?

[Achilles]

I will be this weekend as I was told it can start working as little as two weeks. I will post the my results.

[Achilles]

So as suspected no a huge difference. My nitrates have for sure dropped on the res sea the are 32 ppm and the api are 40ppm. One thing though my phosphates have risen a little now to 3 which has me worried. This might be just balancing itself out. I will report next week. THe cubes came in white but now have darker quite a bit. Not really seeing any yet increase in skimmer. Again though these due take a bit to break in.

[groupie02]

you're running oxygen on those right?  I've read somewhere (yeah... on the internet) that you need to feed those cubes with a constant air supply.  I can probably go find the link if you need it.

[Achilles]

I am running the bomb method with an air stone in each bag. I do not feel however this is effect as the bags keep moving and eventually the air stone makes it was to the top of the bag. I am finding I am having to fix this issue every night. So this weekend I am going to be putting the media in a phosban reactor and some how inject air with the pump. Something like using a maxi jet with its venturi.
I haven't had a chance last weekend to test. I will for sure this weekend.

[Achilles]

So did some testing and it looks like my reading are going down, slowly as to be expected with my bioload but still going down.
My Nitrates are 20ish and phos around 1.0.
So far really happy. My skimmate is really getting stinky.
I did not have a chance to put it in the phosban reactor as it was a busy weekend. I will be doing this tonight. This should help with a couple of issue I am having with it just in a media bag with an air stone in the sump. THe big issue is that the air stone always seems to be getting to the bag so no all the media is getting reaction to air bubbles and the bag are floating around the sump. So by putting it a reactor with a maxi jet with a venture. I should be able to get air to all the media and be able to direct the output direct to the intake of my skimmer.

[Achilles]

So a little update. Since starting these I started to get the brown type of hair algea and it got to the point of completely covering all my rock. My phos and nitrates did go down a little but then would go up a little and down a little. I also had a hard time with using the bomb method as with the current in my sump the bags would float around and the air stone would make its way to the top of the bag. I know at least one other person on the US main site also mentioned having this issue even with low level of nitrate and phosphates.
I am not giving up on these yet as biopellets have been very successful.
So I have take the air stones out and but them under the bags and sectioned off a coner of my sump for them.
I did two days of no lights to kill off most of the algea which is has done great but I will not go full three days with have manderines. I might do another round of couple of days off in a week to try and completely get rid of the last of it.
I have also started to put back in GFO to get the phospates down as I have read other products stating that exact thing to do before using thier media you need very low phosphates. Also read a few threads now that even people using other bio pellets and carbon dosing have found its great for nitrates but doesn't do much for phosphates and having to put back in GFO. Lucking GFO is easy to regenerate.

[Wooki]

Thanks for the update.  I was thinking about using these too.  At least it isn't too expensive - ie. $200 biopellet reactor.

[Papou]

A bottle of vodka will last a long time to and with instant results .

[Wooki]

A bottle of vodka will last a long time to and with instant results .

I agree, I just don't think I can do it consistently and monitor it closely enough not to screw up.

[Achilles]

My problem is keeping the bottle in the house and not drinking it, and also the having to manual dose. I was and am liking the solid carbon dosing as in this or bio pellets to the set and forget. From what I have been gather though really this is mainly for controlling nitrates and still need something else to control phosphate.