but does it make them clowns simply brcause they disagree with your methods?
Not at all. I answered all their questions, and they avoided most of mine. When thier own evidence proved them wrong (that high doc meant healthier corals), they turned soley into personal attacks, including attack on family members. If you'll notice, only the pro-skimmer crowd gets angry. The pro-algae crowd does not. That's because the pro-algae crowd will not be losing any in-kind participation from manufacturers.
this is nothing new and people have been using this method for quite some time
Yes, as I mentioned in my post, a lot of the mechanisms of turf have been on the forums for a while. I read most of them going back to 2000, and a few alt.rec.aquaria ones back to '93. And I also gathered info from those who used turf in the past, or read Dynamic Aquaria, which thereby brings us back to the '70s for using turf in aquariums. The "new" part, however, is just putting the turf into a bucket, and doing it for (basically) free. The only commercial turf unit you can buy today cost $3,000 USD, and is bigger than most tanks itself. Since basically nobody is going to spend that, and because it's so big, there has been no talk of turf in the last few years, and therefore folks new to reefs don't know about turf at all. Kinda like if there were a new type of skimmer that only cost $30 but outperformed every other type including becketts, but nobody was talking about it. The purpose of me posting is to get new folks involved, without making it too technical, so that we can all benefit from what can be learned about the turf.
they are probably more familiar than you are with what the long term negative results of this method are
How? None of them are running algae-only filtration. Not even trying to. And they, amazingly, were unable to produce any proof of long-term negative effects. And the proof they did produce (the "video research", that they did not even watch) actually dis-proved them. Now of course, we are talking here about SPS, which this thread is not about. I invite you to start a thread about long-term SPS success using turf-only filtration. I'll even help.
The flaming is because they have no proof, and are risking their relationships with skimmers and their makers. BTW, I like skimmers. They just could not do the job I asked of them.
it would probably bode well for you to do some more research before you make such bold blanket statements.
The research has been done: It's now proven that an algae filter, by itself (of proper size, flow, lighting) can reduce N and P to levels unmeasureable by hobby test kits within four weeks. That's what this thread is for, about, and will continue to support.
year old reef tanks are still infantile
Moot point, with regards to this thread. I again invite you to start a thread about long-term SPS success with turf-only filtration.
it's my personal feeling that this method is unnaceptable for sps (when employed singularly) so thats a pretty big issue right there.
See above. And please note that the letters "SPS" are not anywhere in the title, nor even anywhere in my entire first post (which was quite lengthy). I'll be excited to read your new thread about SPS once it's started.
i wouldnt mind trying one of these on a system in conjunction with tried and true long term filtration
Please do, I'll be happy to see the results and post them on other sites for them to benefit from too.
Although, im more prone to belive that some of the newer bacterial based methods are vastly superior (zeovite, elos prima line, prodibio, fauna marin zeolith system)
Depends what you mean by "superior". They sure aren't free, so that's not superior. They have risk, so that's not superior. You could eliminate the cost by using vodka, but then you are back to the risk. Also, none of those methods do these things:
Absorb metals
Cool the water
Increase oxygen
Decrease CO2
Grow pods
