I would stick to the denser spheres, but if you need a compact bio media, this will more than do the job. The plates often break in half during shipping though. After they have been in use, the edges and sides can get weak and break off little pieces. If they are set in place and barely touched, they will be perfect for you. If you move it around, they have the Vault box to compensate for the brittle nature of the product. You shouldn't have to encase it though, to me its a design flaw to need a protection box. Performance wise though, it will meet all of your bio needs with ease.

This is my first MarinePure plate, previously used similar product by Brightwell. Both arrived broken into few pieces. I managed to put it together with super glue, but clearly BulkReefSupply could do better work protecting it for shipment or simply product is not meant for shipping?!.Marine pure spheres and brick are less fragile. I don't think I will buy plate again.

So no problems 18 months in, until I did an ICP test and got high aluminum. Then I see others seem to have this problem. I can't be 100% sure but I'm pulling it out of the tank.

I juste removed all this humain made matériel after 2 ICP test showing vert high Aluminium Level 800% over natural and artificial sea water. The 2 test have bien donne over 1 year appart with Many water change including a 90% when all corail (mostly SPS) my lost is a fews K$$$. Will ses if Lebel drop. I was not using GFO and no Carbon filtering. It was fine until problem show Up, may be Carbon filtering was filtering out these metal. But I stop for tang lateral ilness that affecter m'y tang. In dought juste stay away... If I am wrong It mAh Côme from the AK or Cal dosing

I bought a 18 inch wide Elegance coral from someone who had it in their tank for 3 years. For the first 4 months in my tank it was doing great as well. Then I decided to add 5 of the big blocks in my tank, and within 3 weeks the coral shriveled up. So I decided to do a Triton ICP test and sure enough I had 294 ug/l in my tank (reference: sea water should be at 2 ug/l). After removing all the blocks and doing 2 30% water changes, I sent in another test a month later. Currently, my Al is now down to 56 ug/l and hopefully over the next couple months I can get it even lower. I fully blame these blocks for my high AL, and killing off my elegance coral (yes, I ended up dying).

Setting up a new tank. The stuff is already “crumbling.” I’m not touching, it just seems to be deteriorating. On top of that, I have found some extremely respected folks that have conducted triton tests and other tests (ie there are plenty of reviews on R2R.com) that show it is leaching aluminum. Certain folks appear to not have a problem, but if you are planning to grow soft corals (aluminum doesn’t appear to impact sps coral as much as soft) then I really don’t recommend this. I don’t feel like chasing aluminum removal for my tank. I am removing them such as to not start off on the wrong foot. Wish I had come across these reviews and experts before buying. Make your own decision, but for me, these tests and very well debated concerns is evidence enough to not mess with it. It’s very compelling evidence.

after sitting in low flow area of my sump (about 6 mouths ) the 4" block is falling apart, turning to sand.

Broke up into 2" pieces for my cute area. Pod houses. Seems to be working great.

I own 12 of these now they give great surface area for bacteria to grow

I added the 8x8x4 plate into my 34 gallon sump along with the spheres. My nitrate levels dropped from way to high (100ppm) down to about 20ppm in 3 weeks. When I added this, I also added pods and live brine to help get it going. Yes, it is fragile, but as long as you are careful, it isn't that bad. I wouldn't expect cermic with this structure to but super strong anyway.

We already have plenty of rock in tank no ammonia nor nitrites. Was trying to see if this would help with nitrates. It sadly has not worked for me. And it does crumble and make a mess after it has been in water for awhile

Had trouble with rinsing. Took longer than expected. Been using for 7 months now and have had no negative affects shown in the BRS investigates about the trates rising back up. Keep in mind. They had no skimmer to lighten the load on the anaerobic process. To begin with this, I recommend dosing vinegar for a week or two to really populate the bacteria in the tank. That, along side with a bunch of rock in display, should really get this dialed in to see your trates drop within the first few weeks. Good product. Ridiculous how porous it is.

Lowered my nitrates but after about a year I went to move it’s location from 1 chamber of the sump to another and it completely broke apart into sand. Beware where ever u place this thing will have a lot of loose particles if touched or moved. GL

This stuff is great, holds a bunch of bacteria. But YES, it IS very fragile. Think of it as a big crumbly chocolate chip cookie with holes (seriously) in terms of structure. Also, the 1" version is more than half the price of the 4" version. Which means for less than double the price of the 1" version, you can get the 4" version = which is FOUR times the product at less than double the price. Get the bigger one, and use a hack saw to cut it to your desired size.

I've had my phosphates and nitrates at reasonable levels. After I put the 8×8×1 block in my levels dropped about 1.5 in phosphates and nitrates. Now I'm at about .05 or less phosphateso and 0 on nitrates. I installed it in a 125 gal. tank with a 75 gal. refugium.

Personally purchased this to help with nitrates which seems to be the only reason we have lingering algae. Product did not work for me - still dosing vodka for nitrates and still have algae. YMMV

Seems to do its job, easy to work with.

Going on week # 3 with just 1 8x8x1'' plate and so far so good. It's lowered my Nitrates already to Almost zero! I sawed very easy the Marine pure to custom fit under my sponge in the bubble trap area in the sump. I just order another box of the 1/2' spheres so they can be placed in my refugium area along the side of my Miracle Mud tray and my mangroves. 5 stars across the board and for the people that checked off only 4 boxes instead of 5 that ridiculous, since it's not Marine Pure's fault it got broken during transportation, that's UPS, FEDEX OR your finest United States Postal service at work.

I bought one of each size for my 90g. The 4" is in the refuge and the 1" is under my skimmer to raise it up to ideal water level with the trigger sump to the max height. Each piece arrived intact and with lots of rinsing, are not breaking apart in my sump. I can use the 1" for a quarantine tank if needed as well. Would buy again

I think it's working? I have a small plate in my sump to help with surface area. I am not sure if it is helping reduce nitrates but maybe helping to hold them steady? I don't routinely stare at the sump so I haven't noticed any bubbling from it. The loss of a star is due to A LOT of fines coming from it, even after rinsing it for a solid 20 minutes.

Used this to replace foam in my Reefer 250 bubble trap. This stuff is very delicate -- I ordered two. one arrived broken in half... and they're delicate to the touch. Don't put them somewhere that will subject them to mechanical agitation.

If you're not using MarinePure to supplement your biofiltration, why are you still waiting? This little 8x8x1 block will substantiate 30gallons by itself, that means you don't need as much in the display, giving you the best opportunity to play with your aquascape and get creative! I have a 46g Bowfront and 1 block of this and had a blast getting my scape perfect for our home!

I have a Red Sea 250. I cut this in half and then soaked it in RO/DI Water. It's crazy how much water it holds. I removed the black sponge that comes with the Red Sea sump and about cut it to make a 2.5" x 14" strip. I cut the marine pure to the to be 4"x by about 14" to be the same same length as the bubble trap. . Now I have the Marine pure just under the sponge in the bubble trap area. :IT its great and while it is fragile it's very easy to cut to the shape you want. I recommend the 8x8x1 for the Red Sea 250.

So far so good. I will be checking the water next week. Fit in my sump easy.

I have had the 1" plate in my sump, located in the baffles where it can get the most water flow and my nitrates are practically zero.. I thought it was the test kit, so I used another test kit and still almost no color in the test vial...I wont say it zero, because the first two color options look the same to me (being color blind sucks..lol!).. As for the plate, it was delivered with a corner broke, but since it was to go in the baffles anyways it really didn't bother me. The only downside, for me that's is aptasia loves to grow on it..

I purchased a block to live in my sump. I have a 180 mixed reef and a 75 gallon custom sump. I can see how the product has a large surface area and would support lots of bacteria but the block I purchased was loosing material and the bag was full of fines. The product has little structural integrity kind of like a sand castle. I was expecting something solid. For the price one would be better off buying a bunch of dry live rock. This stuff is way overpriced. I wonder if it will erode down to nothing.

this has been in my tank for about 2 weeks, I bought the 8x8x1 block and have a 60G tank. its really light when you first get it but once you rinse it you can see how much water it hold. so far so good.

Will definitely order again

product looks great just getting tank and sump set up so hopefully it works as good. had issue with first one customer service took care of issue with no questions.

VERY porous, very brittle also, so handle carefully. Mine came fairly intact, and was packaged well. Either it works really well, or my bio pellets finally kicked in, but my nitrates went from 15 to two in about a month. Great item for a sump, could be custom cut if needed.

Works perfect

I purchased the large block about a month and a half ago for use in my new sump for my 125g. I am in the process of building a custom stand/shelf unit, so it is taking longer than originally expected. The wife wanted to get a smaller tank up and running so she bought me a 24g nano. I set it up, and placed this in the back (sump) for added filtration prior to adding anything else (filtration. I am running carbon and foam filter block as well. Now, I take blame for my mistake as I forgot to soak like the directions expressed, I only rinsed it off for about 10 minutes. With that being said, we went out and got a couple clowns and some cleaner shrimp. Within 4 days, both clowns were dead, the shrimp are still good. I have tested the water and all parameters are well within safe limits. I verified this with three experts (people who have been in the reefing hobby for a long time. This is the only thing that I didn't follow the directions on and I love two fish. I am not sure if I will use this again or not, but if you follow the directions and soak it like it says, maybe you will have better results. The last part, this is VERY VERY fragile, and I have "rubbed" quiet a bit of this off adjusting it in the sump and pulling it out. It looks like a good product, but I am not happy with it (partially due to my own haste).

I wanted an alternative to having pounds and pounds of rock in my DT and this seems the perfect product. I am amazed at how lightweight it is, too. Thanks BRS for the wonderful job packing the box for shipping, everything arrived in perfect order.

First, buy it from a reputable dealer (like BRS). Rumor has it there is a cheap knock-off that has harmful elements. You can find video's about it on the YouTube... Great material. I bought a 1" plate to replace my biomedia for my 5 gal nano. It is brittle, so cut it carefully or it will chip all over you. I used a sharp knife and steadily worked through the plate with the tip, worked well. First cut I chipped a bit b/c I went too quick. Later cuts were easy. If you do chip it, you can easy superglue it back together. I will definitely be ordering more for use in QT and other tanks.

I was really excited when I learned of this product. I started by ordering a couple of the plates and eventually orderd a bunch of the 2 inch cubes on amazon. I was lucky in that I started with the cubes in a non DT tank. I put them in a high flow area. WITHIN 2 hours my acropora went from happy to no polyps. A week later and everything was starting to STN. I can fairly pin the blame eon this product because when I introduced it I did not change anything else in the tank.... No water change, no carbon change.... nothing. To be fair I did no rinse the product before placing it onto my tank. However, it did not cause cloudiness. Putting this product in my tank is the worst mistake I have made in over 5 years. NEVER AGAIN.

Marine Pure is a must if you have a sump. I was easily able to cut it to fit perfectly on my return chamber but is extremely fragile. I was placing it in the sump little debrie was coming and chips easily. still though great product.

I would have given this a better review but mine arrived broken. The product is very fragile. One of the corners had snapped off and instead of reporting it I chose to use it as is. If I were to but it again I would buy the bigger blocks. It is a great product and holds a ton of water , but it's very fragile.

These are perfect for the minimalist aquascaper. I am not a huge fan of huge piles of rock in my tank but really like having the beneficial bacteria from live rock...Marinepure is a great substitute for live rock and you don't need 100's of pounds of rock to do what these can do with one or two plates.

Easy to use. Cuts easily to fit where ever you need it.

by far has the most surface area out of any material i have ever seen on the market

I have brought ever type except the small square ones! I plan to buy more for my predator tank! These diffently do what is advertised! I use these in combo with miracle mud and my skimmer run time is reduced to 6 hours a day!

I bought two of these plates and the first one has been broken up in to pieces in order to fit into my sump properly. As one other person commented, it did cause a mini cycle in my tank but after that the benefits could be seen fairly quickly. When I do my next water change this weekend, I will probably break up the other plate and place in the sand bed to help even more.

i bought these to replace the foam piece in my baffle... the section in 1.5" so i needed to cut one in half. i used a dry wall hand saw and it zipped through it in no time flat. made a huge mess but life goes on. i soaked them overnight to see if they'd expand when wet. not at all, perfect right? almost!! these hold so much in i couldn't believe how much debris was still inside when i placed them in and let the water flow through. after about a week the particles started disappearing and now my water is back to being debris free. if you have to cut them, thoroughly flush them for as long as possible. if you're just gonna toss them in... do so without worry.

I have a deep sump and needed to raise my skimmer up a bit. I figured two of these would be perfect, as it would fix the skimmer height and add biological filtration media. Unfortunately, once this stuff gets wet, it's fragile like egg shells. Just having my skimmer sit on it broke it up into about 6 pieces. Presumably from the vibration of the pump. It didn't create a big mess, but it's now completely worthless to me and is just being shoved to the side or thrown away. I see value in what they are doing, but it needs to be less fragile.

these blocks are critical to truly the best biological filtration media square footage wise, there is simply nothing that compares to surface area for benifical bacteria to grow and thrive on.

I have not had the product in my sump long enough to comment on its effectiveness, but its proven track record says it all. I purchased the large block and cut it easily with a hack saw to produce two 8x8x2 blocks. From there I cut it to fit the width of my sump at the weir exiting the refugium to act as a bubble trap. The extra piece left over will be perfect for seeding my quarantine tank when I get around to building it.

Been in my 240 gal tank nitrates have been an ongoing problem been around 30 forever. Tank is full of big eaters 6" french angel, 5" picasso trigger, 3 yellow tangs, 8" miniatus grouper, 20" stout moray eel big messy eaters. 200lbs live rock. Block has been in sump for 3 weeks now nitrates yesterday down to 10. This thing is great

I ordered two, both were delivered broken. After a quick live chat, BRS sent replacements to me free of charge. I've yet to receive them, but I'm really hoping they survive the shipping. However kudos to BRS for prompt and fantastic customer service. You guys are doing it right!

Ordered the 8" x 8" x 4" due to the better value and was easily able to have it cut in smaller sizes to fit inside my sump. Water flows right through it and the amount of surface area is awesome. I plan on ordering at least one more block since my live rock in the main display is minimal.

i bought it based on reviews and talking to the rep at a marine conference. It hasn't affected the flow in my sump but I am waiting to see how it affects my levels. So far it is exactly what was promised and it was easy to cut with a sturdy knife. Just make sure to rinse after cutting to clean out dust.

This is a great product. I used it in a sump on a drilled biocube 29. Only thing I would recommend is seeding it first in another tank before adding it to a smaller aquarium. My tank went through a small cycle after about a week of putting this in my sump.

have not installed yet, but quality of product is evident.

I bought the 8x8x4 after seeing a video online of scientists using the spheres in a lab. I put it in my sump while my tank was cycling and my ammonia went down very quickly and I have not measured nitrate in my tank since. This material is very porous, and I would recommend it to anyone that doesn't want to use a lot of rock in their display tank.

The bio-plate is so soft! I was able to easily shape the plate and have put it in the top tray of my canister filter. Day one of this little experiment, no noticeable reduction in flow so far. Very cool product.. Five stars on first impression and ease of use...

This product is extremely light in weight and porous. When rinsed no water collects on the top of the pad or runs off the side.