Skimmerless?? Anyone??Miracle Mud??

[LostMind]

Hey Doug - what turf scrubber do you have? I am curious about them!

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Doug Lowey

Seems aquarists now feed their sps corals, so perhaps a skimmerless but turf scrubbed tank would also do well for them. I plan on using the flow from my stream pumps to keep the crap in suspension, until taken out by powerfilters.

I think this is all the more reason to have a very efficient skimmer, you want the coral to get fed but you don't want the unused stuff staying in the tank and decomposing.

Steve

[Doug]

I have the large model that was once sold by Inland Aquatics. Not sure who carries them now.

Steve, if whats left is particle in nature, why would mech. filtering not remove it or if organic in nature, then the scrubber would remove it. Thats what a skimmer is doing.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Doug Lowey

Steve, if whats left is particle in nature, why would mech. filtering not remove it or if organic in nature, then the scrubber would remove it. Thats what a skimmer is doing.

I supose it is but you are now adding a tone of maintence to the system, algae skimmers have to be cleaned regulary as well as do mechanical filters (even more so) you can cleam a skimmer once a week in 10 min. also from what I have read about algae scrubbers is that you have to watch for algae spreading to the tank if your not real carfull.

I like the idea of algae scrubber personaly but they take up a lot of room and from everything I have read are labour intensive.

Steve

[Doug]

Sorry Steve, you read wrong. One thing they are not, is labour intensive. If anything its less than a skimmer. I, as a user of both, can compare servicing them.

Believe me, I would not change from my skimmer, if the scrubber was more work. Yes, it does take up room, but ok in my situation. Actually they are designed to sit on your tank, behind your light hood. Very nice looking acrylic work. Part of the reason for their cost. Of course if they come smashed to crap in the mail, like mine did, then its ugly with its glass body.

My beckett needs cleaning every few days also. Its easier to remove the scrubber screen and scrape it, than take the screws from the beckett and clean the various parts. Plus one does not need a large pump and plumbing everywhere, that worries me when some local is looking after my tank.

As good as becketts are, one thing that pees me, is the constant changing in foam production and levels, just because I look at it the wrong way. Ok, everytime I feed or touch the water. I feed mysis or brine a minimum of a couple times/day. Takes half a day for the skimmer to run again.

Also the benefit of turf algae and scrubbers, over calerpa type in refugiums, is it wont transfer to the tank. Also one reason for good lighting over the screen, {two 55w power compacts}, is to out compete the tank. Plus RDP lighting.

Anyways, you should know I for one am not anti-skimming. Just like to talk about it on this thread Doug started. My large beckett will not be far away and I just finished the plumbing for a sump as a back up, just in case.

I also wonder how it would work on an all sps tank. Its does fine on tanks with corals more condusive to that type of system.

[StirCrazy]

thanks Doug, I didn't realize there were little ones as all the ones I had read about said to make them effective they have to be 2 to 4X the surface area of the tank. do you have pics of yours?

Steve

[Delphinus]

I would really love to see a dump in action from one. Anyone know of any video clips?

I would like one just for the water dumping, not even for any turf growing or whatever.

Maybe that'll be a DIY project for later this year. LOL

[Doug]

Steve, My screen is 24in. by 12in. Although it works well and is rated for 250g, I would not argue in favour of such, from my own experience so far. I have seen a few tanks with them running fine, but not many. Inland does use them to great success.

Thats one reason I wish to see how it runs the smaller tank.

I removed the pics last week. I will take some more when its running after the weekend. Tony, I will do a dump video for ya also. Its a modified surge though, because we built the glass dump chute different than the original design.

I cant even take a pic for you know, as its at a friends, on his 100g sump.

[Skimmerking]

I can attest to the scrubber working its a awesome piece of kit. The dump is pretty cool lots of life coming out of the scrubber, and tangs love it. its pretty cool to watch the gathering of water and BAM the waer pours out...


MIke

[Delphinus]

Ok. Sorry it's taken me this long to dig through my books, but I dug out my copy of "Pacific Seaweeds" by Louis Druehl and dig some reading about the seagrasses off the west coast.

The species he lists are Zostera marina, Z. japonica (eelgrasses) and Phyllospadix scouleri, P. serrulatus and P. torreyi (surfgrasses). He lists distribution for both Zostera and Phyllospadix as being "Alaska to Mexico."

As I do google searches on Zostera and read about it being found in England, off the east coast of North America, Greenland, Sweden, ....... I get the impression that these are temperate species. After a cursory search I didn't find any reference to this species being found in the Carribean or south Pacific. This suggests to me it's really not a suitable substitute for the commonly referenced "turtle grass" (Thalassia sp.) for the hobby.

I haven't put any focus on Phyllospadix yet but I'm betting I'm not going to find a lot of info that one could use to postulate how it'd do in our reef refugia.

Found this site in my google travels, check this out, a seagrass forum: www.worldseagrass.org (has a great PDF listing seagrass species and their geographic regions).

I guess the stuff we want is Thalassia still. It sort of irritates me now that I didn't buy a small piece from Tropicorium the last time I was in Detroit. Problem is, by the sounds of it you really need to know what you're doing with these grasses otherwise they tend to die real easily. So I had at the time passed on it, thinking that I needed to know more before I commited to trying any. Nuts.

Anyone have a good relationship with Dick Perrin? AFAIK he won't touch any Canadian orders. Anyone on the board from Sarnia? Care to make a weekend drive and pick up a plant and send it to me?? LOL j/k.

When I'm set up in my new place (moving in April) I might start up my quest for Thalassia again but I guess until then I'd just be getting ahead of myself. But if anyone else cares to see if they can find some, please let us know what you find out!!!!