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You should enter the Nano reef buildoff with your new 20 gallon. Now's your chance to make all of us experienced hobbiests eat our words.
i just noticed the 3rd dat, its starting to get a greenish tint in the water. oh no, its starting all over again. what should i do? i added phosphate sponge, to remove phosphate. whats next?
Guy":265oly2y said:Doesn't look like Bean pole is using your method Beaslbob. I see a Heater, some bottles for additives, no crushed oyster shells, perhaps they're hidden.
We need to see you use your methods and document it for us so that when you win we can all change our nasty habbits and get rid of all that detrimental equipment we use.
beaslbob":xtvesakl said:"My" method as stated above is to simply get the plant life thriving as the first thing and then do the rest.
Podman":1gjp9nmo said:beaslbob,
i don't understand your point.
in the link to saltwaterfish.com the tank in question probably goes algae crazy because the guy is using unfiltered tapwater in LA.
I had not noticed the mangrove sprout. the point was that after all that work, three days later the water is already starting to turn green again. The original green water, the teardown, and the green returning would not have happened it he has simply established the plant life from the start. Now he is justifiably confused and fustrated.so, he then breaks it down and rebuilds to take a pic of it a week later with a mangrove sprout in it and you are posting it as evidence that plant life is fixing his problem? or that problems that persist are a result of not enough plant life?
It does when the problems of algae returning are common. As is not establishing plant life. then it makes total sense.then you link some RDO members tanks that are completely different in composition... none of it makes sense.
I chat with him each month and exchange posts at a local forum. He stumbled across the no water changes some time ago when he was away from his tank and busy. He was dumbfounded how is parameters didn't change. Now he is convinced.you say this guy on RC, Beanpole, uses "your" methods and yet i did a search on him and found no evidence that he advises against skimmers, just that he doesn't use one which isn't really news to anyone. people have always done this.
he doesn't tell people to use unfiltered tap water as you do and i see nowhere that he states he doesn't change out water.
You are correct. If you run an open system constantly pumping sea water to the tank and back to the see then you don't need much of anything else. Anything less then a 100% waterchange will not maintain say nitrates at 0.0 or any other parameter at optimum values. Water change do slow but not correct trends. To get consistant optimum values you need the system itself helping out. With nitrates having plant life consume those nitrates. And when the system is maintaining those parameters then water changes are not only unecessary but probably detrimental. And provide the hobbiest an opportunity to screw something up.if you change out enough water and you don't need a skimmer or a refugium :wink:
also regarding this beanpole tank that you cite as evidence... the corals he is keeping are very forgiving in regards to water quality. i am not surprised in the least that he can keep zooanthids and discosoma. corallamorphs are tough as nails.