A Reader Pulls the Plug!
"Scuba Pro" on the UR site has some good results to tell; here are his complete posts:
9/3: Santamonica after reading through the thread and instructions carefully I am going to give it a try as I like feeding my fish well, means I have bought a skimmer yet I don't like using one due to the food it takes out. I have a couple of questions though: I am going to be doing the sump design version 3. 1) Will the fact that I am not using any timers to create wave affects really affect algae growth that much?? 2) Could I split my display outlet in two and create two of these filters? My sump has four sections! Or would this cause the flow over the sheet to be too slow??
9/9: Well I have set-up the sump version 1 a couple of days ago and its already going very brown. I have decided to actually make either sump version three using a pump or a bucket version on top of my sump, just haven't got the time at the moment. I take it you mean Nitrate and Phosphate readings when referring to N and P?? Also I don't understand why anyone is doubting this. In a natural environment there are no skimmers or mechanical filtration what so ever its all done by nature itself which is basically what we are trying to achieve surely? I can't see there being any drawbacks from trying to put a naturally run filtration system on your tank. I mean Eric Borneman, who in my eyes is one of the best reef keepers and has written books which should be read by anyone looking to succesfully keep a reef aquarium, has a system set-up where by he has a reef tank connected to other tanks where sea grass and other nutrient exporters grow. Now I know this an extreme case but this is ultimately what we are trying to achieve. How people can use their skimmers and UV's and external filters and say that there could be negative effects on your aquarium using a natural fltration method is beyond me. Personally I love the look of this and can totally understand how it works and I have no doubts wether it does or not!!! Just putting my tuppence worth in, not meaning to offend anyone just my opinion.
9/10: Well here are pics of my quick bodge job!! lol. Haven't had time to do it properly. Santamonica can you tell me if it is time to use my fingers under the tap yet?? [pics were not useful]
9/14: Well I have some good news. I decided to turn off my skimmer 4 days ago and took a nitrate reading of 25. I gave the screen half a clean under the tap 3 days ago and now it has gone mental algae blooming. So i decided to take a nitrate reading today before doing a waterchange and they hadn't budged still at 25 maybe even a little lower. This is awsome. I feed very heavily in my tank and I usually have to clean the glass everyday. Since 3 days ago I havent had to touch the front glass with an algae cleaner and the sides the algae is receding. My sand is also not getting any browner either which would definetly happen if the skimmer was off usually. I upgraded my lighting though to a 18w gro light and a 60w reptile light when turning my skimmer off and this has helped greatly. I am also only using about 2/3rds of a 12x12 screen one side!!!!! WOOOHOOO Gonna do a waterchange and keep an eye on the nitrates but I am impressed so far!!
