bing@mcnc.org (Carter E. Bing) (03/22/88)
Mark Lyakhousky,
I seemed have deleted your address so here is
a response to e-mail. Drop me another line and I won't
be so stupid next time.
I picked up my reef system at a very good shop in Raleigh, N.C.. The
shop is called Fish Pros and I paid about 170.00 for it. Mine hangs on the
back of my tank and I use a Penn-Plax Marathon 502 cannister filter to
power it. It encorages the growth of bacteria to help the tank rid itself
area for the bacteria to grow on supposedly giving you what would be several
hundred feet of surface area... You could check out some of the trade magazines
for a more detailed explaination. I have some manufactures addresses and
numbers at home and I will e-mail them to you. Oh!!!!! Instead of having to
do weekly water changes all I have to do now is moniter my salt level
and add water when needed. Thease systems can also be used in fresh
water tanks... Another bit of info is that you can keep live coral in your
tank without to many problems. This system is still new to me but so far
I have been really happy with it. I'm going to add a piece of live coral
next week so I will let you know how that turns out.
One thing I really like is that my tank water is crystal clear. In about
15 years of keeping fish I have never been able to keep such clear water.
That has really pleased me.....
Well enuff said,
Take care
Carter Bing
bing@mcnc.orgdalka@ihlpg.ATT.COM (Ken Dalka) (03/22/88)
> I picked up my reef system at a very good shop in Raleigh, N.C.. The > shop is called Fish Pros and I paid about 170.00 for it. Mine hangs on the > back of my tank and I use a Penn-Plax Marathon 502 cannister filter to > power it. It encorages the growth of bacteria to help the tank rid itself > area for the bacteria to grow on supposedly giving you what would be several > hundred feet of surface area... > > Oh!!!!! Instead of having to > do weekly water changes all I have to do now is moniter my salt level > and add water when needed. > > One thing I really like is that my tank water is crystal clear. In about > 15 years of keeping fish I have never been able to keep such clear water. Ive read about these systems and I dont quite understand why the system does what its advertised to do. I can certainly understand that growing lots of bacteria is good because they help rid the tank of ammonia and nitrites. But what does a "reef" system do for nitrates? Nitrates are not removed by aerobic bacteria that would be produced in such a system. There are only three ways I know of to get rid of nitrates. Water changes, plants and/or anaerobic bacteria that consume the nitrates (sort of). Since the reef systems claim that water changes are unnecessary and the systems themselves do not provide plants, do they somehow generate anaerobic bacteria. I dont see how they do this because they all enrich the water with oxygen and anaerobic bacteria only develop in oxygen free environments. The other problem I have with this deals with PH. Over a period of time wouldnt the tank water become acidic without water changes to remove the acids produced by decomposition? I've had some PH problems in my tank lately and I have been doing water changes. -- Ken Dalka (Bell Labs) ihnp4!ihlpg!dalka IE 2F-518 (312) 416-7437
bing@mcnc.org (Carter E. Bing) (03/23/88)
> > Ive read about these systems and I dont quite understand why the system > does what its advertised to do. I can certainly understand that growing > lots of bacteria is good because they help rid the tank of ammonia and > nitrites. But what does a "reef" system do for nitrates? Nitrates are > not removed by aerobic bacteria that would be produced in such a system. > The other problem I have with this deals with PH. Over a period of time > wouldnt the tank water become acidic without water changes to remove > the acids produced by decomposition? > > -- Ken Dalka (Bell Labs) Ken, I don`t have all my notes with me so don`t hold me to everything I'm going to say. The best thing would be to call a reputable dealer for more detailed information. I looked at two types of macro-reefs before I settled on the one I have. The first system was somewhat larger and would have required my purchasing another cannister filter and I really didn`t want to spend that kind of money. Both systems have oxygen poor chambers in which anaerobic bacteria are allow to devolpe. The system that I decided against used a sugar (which i can`t remember the name of) to encourage the growth of anaerobic bacteria and thus controling your nitrate level. The system I am using has a chamber in which you place a nitrate bag and the bag itself encourages the growth of thease little guys. The point you brought up about the ph level was a very good one. I haven`t had a problem with the ph so far. I use fresh water from the tap and the ph is around 7.8. I raise it to 8.2 before adding the water to my tank. I guess if I noticed the ph rising to digusting levels I could simply not raise the level in the new water that I am adding and that should control it. I normaly keep adout 10 gallons of mix salt water on hand just in case. I will visit my local dealer and I will ask him about the ph question and I will get back with you on it........ Tanks, Carter E. Bing bing@mcnc.org