The cheato ONLY method of reefkeeping

[liveforphysics]

Electrokate- Very good to hear that you have some unskimmed tanks that are also detritus free and function better than your skimmed fancy pants setups.

Interesting you mention that your unskimmed tanks nurse sick corals back to health. I have found very similar results when people have brought me dying corals of all types to see if they can make a come back. So far its been 100% recovery rate Often they are from tanks where the price of the skimmer alone exceeds the entire investment(all equip, rock, and livestock) of the tank they get healed in.

I remember back when I got talked into a skimmer in my FO days... I would look at the skimmate and think "hmm, so, anything that increases surface tension on a bubble is automatically a bad thing?", how amazingly convienient .

I should add that I try to ask for a bag of the grossest looking detritus siphoned off the bottom of the liverock holding tanks at every new pet store I visit along with a few tablespoons of sand from a healtly looking coral display tank(if they have one). I then add these right into the fuge when I get home. I am REALLY into maximum bio-diversity at the micro faunal level.

 

[mojoreef]

Mojo- I belive that you now understand exactly what I think is occuring. You are welcome to come over and radically over feed the tanks yourself for a couple weeks and see if you can find even a spot of detritus on a rock, or give the sand bed the old swirly-whirl and see the little to non-existant accumulation of organic particles in the 1.25ish" crushed coral substraght.

I do my friend, I was just trying to share it with you. Anyway no biggie.


Mike