I have wanted to try some porous media for a while now but am constantly worried about the effect the aluminum leeching from marinepure would have on my soft corals. Reading up on alternatives i found a product that's designed for ponds which is almost the exact same material as marinepure except doesn't contain the aluminum.
I purchased a 4L box of pond matrix that retails for about $48. It comes in a container that can be used later for storage.
My first impression was that they were SUPER light and had barely any weight to them at all. A bunch of them were too light to even sink. After some time in the water as they soaked in most of them sank to the bottom of my sump. I do not have a lot of information on my end for nitrate levels before and after adding them as i used them right from the start on my build. Refer to the link below if you are interested in seeing peoples posts about how much and how quickly their nitrates dropped.
I just ordered a 2nd 4L container to add to my sump as i increase the bioload on my frag tank.
I would definitely recommend this to anybody that is looking at alternatives to marinepure. The rocks are about the size of a golfball some being smaller some being larger but generally that's about the rough size you will get. I soaked mine in a bucket and hand washed them to remove any sediment but found they came pretty clean straight out of the bucket.
They sell a different version of this however the pieces are pretty small, they might be better for putting in a small bag and using them for QT's, just sit the bag in the sump and just use a handful each time you want to run the qt for new fish, toss it when the QT is done.
People with small sumps and high bio-loads i think this is a product you definitely want to look into, i would soak them for 24-48 hrs with possibly a bottle of your favorite bacteria (microbacter / colony etc etc) They also fit nicely in the back of AIO tanks which tend to run on the higher nitrate levels due to lack of skimmer.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/putting-pond-matrix-to-the-test-now-that-marinepure-is-out.310313/
I purchased a 4L box of pond matrix that retails for about $48. It comes in a container that can be used later for storage.
My first impression was that they were SUPER light and had barely any weight to them at all. A bunch of them were too light to even sink. After some time in the water as they soaked in most of them sank to the bottom of my sump. I do not have a lot of information on my end for nitrate levels before and after adding them as i used them right from the start on my build. Refer to the link below if you are interested in seeing peoples posts about how much and how quickly their nitrates dropped.
I just ordered a 2nd 4L container to add to my sump as i increase the bioload on my frag tank.
I would definitely recommend this to anybody that is looking at alternatives to marinepure. The rocks are about the size of a golfball some being smaller some being larger but generally that's about the rough size you will get. I soaked mine in a bucket and hand washed them to remove any sediment but found they came pretty clean straight out of the bucket.
They sell a different version of this however the pieces are pretty small, they might be better for putting in a small bag and using them for QT's, just sit the bag in the sump and just use a handful each time you want to run the qt for new fish, toss it when the QT is done.
People with small sumps and high bio-loads i think this is a product you definitely want to look into, i would soak them for 24-48 hrs with possibly a bottle of your favorite bacteria (microbacter / colony etc etc) They also fit nicely in the back of AIO tanks which tend to run on the higher nitrate levels due to lack of skimmer.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/putting-pond-matrix-to-the-test-now-that-marinepure-is-out.310313/
