Marine pure or siporax

phongluc · Apr 15, 2017

I want to set up a sps tank with no sand and no live rock in the DT what is the best alternative is it rubble live rock or marine pure or siporax any opinions would be appreciated thanks in advanced

-Logzor · Apr 15, 2017

I think lots of siporax would be the best option. You have to buy in bulk from Germany or England. Lots of successful SPS tanks outside the US using siporax.

phongluc · Apr 15, 2017

I saw some for sell on amazon is that not the same

PlanB · Apr 15, 2017

If trying to establish bio filter in sump area, I would recommend marine pure. Its very porous and takes up little space for how porous it is. It can completely replace sand and rock in the DT if you have enough room in your sump.

phongluc · Apr 15, 2017

I have 120g and the sump is 36 bio tech what you think

PlanB · Apr 15, 2017

36g sump? I would think plenty of room for marine pure blocks or balls. If you are curious about them, and you haven't gone to their website yet, go to their website check them out
http://www.cermedia.com/marinepure.php

phongluc · Apr 15, 2017

I also hear a lot of good thing about the siporax just want to hear from ppl already use it see what they said or use both which one come out better

reefwiser · Apr 15, 2017

Both. I have them both in my tank. [emoji3]

phongluc · Apr 15, 2017

You think it can substitute the live rock

reefwiser · Apr 15, 2017

Yes it can replace live rock. Especially what most people call live rock today.
The rock use by most people now days has hardly any life on it at all. An is not very porous at all. Live rock years ago would hold water. You could take a rock out of your tank and it would drain water for 15 minutes.

phongluc · Apr 15, 2017

Thanks is that siporax on amazon is the same where are you buy your siporax

Gablami · Apr 15, 2017

I got mine off eBay. Sera siporax from Germany. I use the 25mm rings, stacked with egg crate. Recommendation is at least 1L per 25g, but many use more. 10L might seem like a lot but it's not. There are smaller volumes available from the same seller (i.e. 5, 2, 1L). http://m.ebay.com/itm/222448646000?_mwBanner=1

Gablami · Apr 15, 2017

Oh, and I have both siporax and a block of MP.

AcroNem · Apr 15, 2017

Personally I like marine pure, and I recently got two plates made by Brightwell, they're fairly similar. Those are going in a NPS project system. I've never had issues with marine pure so that's my vote.

Pmj · Apr 15, 2017

I had the big marinepure block before and it didn't do anything for nitrates at all (had it for 8+ months). Replaced it with 10l siporax about a month & a half ago so still waiting on results either way.

phongluc · Apr 15, 2017

I just order 10l 25mm siporax on eBay not cheap but hopefully it will get the job done

TX_Punisher · Nov 20, 2017

Just ordered 3l. Mainly want to use it for setting up qt tanks with some quick denitrification options. Will have it running in my 200g sump.

chema · Nov 2, 2018

Pmj said:
I had the big marinepure block before and it didn't do anything for nitrates at all (had it for 8+ months). Replaced it with 10l siporax about a month & a half ago so still waiting on results either way.

Hi, I'm curious about your experience replacing the marine pure block with siporax. I also have had a big marine pure block for almost 6 months and it didn't help in any way reducing nitrates. Previously I had a complete box of marine pure bioballs, but those got very dirty, with lots op aiptasia, worms and other stuff. They really helped to keep nitrates at bay, but I decided to replace them with the big block and see whether I could get nitrate reduction in a "cleaner" way.

Before going back to he bio balls I would like to hear what has been your experience with siporax.

Pmj · Nov 2, 2018

I actually took out the siporax too, but may put it back. I did like it better than marinepure as it doesn't fall apart. I was just trying to simplify everything to beat dinos. For me, the nitrates were high (I believe) because my PO4 was at rock bottom. Seems like there is an equilibrium.

I tried vibrant to try to help the dinos, and vibrant has some carbon source that fuels bacteria (which eats No3 & po4) and made the water slightly cloudy from how much I dosed. I had to dose Po4 for quite a while too keep it around >.1 and at the same time nitrates dropped fairly quickly. Now, both No3 and Po4 are very low, no dinos, and I'm feeding heavy without any carbon, gfo, macro, etc. It did take a long time to fight the seesawing nutrients.