What I don't like about bioballs is... They have this tendancy to
conglomerate detritus in a completely aerobic fashion, without any chance of
compaction into anaerobic situations where the trapped detritus _might_ be
of some use. By the time that happened, the nitrate wastes in the system
would be so high, there'd be no point in keeping fish :) The towers also
seem to blow off a lot of _useful_ CO2 that can translate into plant cells,
which again, translates into more biologically active surface area,
additional nitrogen conventered into plant matter and etc on ad nauseum.
I'll just stop there cause if I haven't gotten this whole point across,
there's no sense in repeating it :)
I'm now reneging on the idea of the mechanical removal of detritus weekly.
Again, you've already placed effort or expense in creating that detritus...
There's a bunch of biologically available export mechanisms to make use of
it, instead of waste it.
I won't even start on the economic realities that you might have with the
plant product... "Poop for Dollars" might express that idea well enough
heeheehee
And what's even cooler than that... I was just laying in bed thinking about
all this and I might someday soon have the opportunity to get someone to pay
me to play these kinds of games, and think these kinds of thoughts, and
space where I don't get told "you can only have three tanks Todd". Does the
University realize what they're getting themselves into? ;)
Okay enough time typing at the mistress... Back to the wife....
Todd
----- Original Message -----
From: "Todd Crail" <farmertodd_at_buckeye-express.com>
To: <nanfa_at_aquaria.net>
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2003 6:48 PM
Subject: Re: NANFA--Filters, 1/2 full large round tanks
> Yeah. I'm not sure what the implications are on quarantine. You'd
> definately want to skip on the multi-system if quarantine is necessary.
But
> I have to believe that there's less chance to give the conditions for
> disease to manifest with a much more stable system. I don't "cycle"
> anymore. I haven't seen manifestations of Ammonia or Nitrite in a year
now
> :) It's _certainly_ there, but gets utilized so fast you can't detect
it.
>
> Even if you wanted to start sterile, you're going to have about a
bazillion
> more times surface area in sand than in those bio-flaws. And there
> certainly no reason you couldn't put a mechanical filter into the overflow
> into a live sand sump. Sajjad's idea about Carex is an awesome one. If I
> were doing large systems, I'd incorporate that in a heartbeat! You could
do
> two studies at once! :)
>
> Another thing you might want to look into is one of those portable pool
> mechanical filters. They have an intake hose, a 1 hp pump and it pulls it
> all through a sediment filter. My friend Joy cures her live rock in this
> manner. 300 gal livestock tubs, dumps in the rock and then blasts it with
> this filter to get all the dead sponge off. If you had a smaller scale
one
> of these, you could drop it on once a week to the "living quarters" and
> really get a bunch of crap out.
>
> I was trying to find some pictures of her shop and setup, but I'm not
> finding them. I'll have to look on my backup CD's. Shane, do you have
any
> pics of Harbor online? It's a pretty neat setup and sooooo dang cheap to
do
> :)
>
> Todd
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