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- Apr 13, 2019
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So yeah...my battle to go water change free and rely almost completely on an algae scrubber is getting me to think about taking some drastic steps. I'm now thinking that the rocks are the biggest problem. The fact that they absorb phosphate and then grow a bunch of algae is just too problematic to deal with. I literally bought a 600 dollar algae scrubber, the Santa Monica HOG 3xx. It still isn't solving the problem. So at first I thought the problem was that the display was out-competing the scrubber, so I needed more power. But that isn't true. I think it's the rocks. They always have a huge rebound after the scrubber finally starts working. The scrubber works for a little while, then it stops working, then the rocks grow a bunch of algae.
So that brings me here, to this dark and desperate place! I'm gonna go bare-bottom and rockless. I'm wondering if anybody out there knows of any rocks that absolutely 100% will not absorb phosphate. Could even be plastic! But I wonder if there isn't another solution like ceramic. Something that's almost like a rock but doesn't absorb any phosphate. The rocks I have now just won't cut it for the method I'm trying to do. I want all the phosphate and nitrate to just be in the water until the scrubber can take them out. Also I will still have bio-blocks in the sump so there will still be areas for the beneficial bacteria to live. But they won't be under light!
So...about those artificial rocks. Or I was thinking even plastic frag racks. The fish are going to want some kind of cover that preferably looks natural. Or do they even really care? I've seen fish living in systems mostly meant for frags and they seem fine! Should I just go bare-bottom frag rack only? Probably a lot less cheesy than artificial rocks. Not entirely sure if I could live with myself if I got some cheesy plastic rocks meant for freshwater. Lol. Might have to say goodbye to keeping firefish since they really like having a dart hole.
I wanted to grow GSP though, that's what makes me think of plastic rocks. Just something that the gsp can grow over anyways. Any recommendations?
So that brings me here, to this dark and desperate place! I'm gonna go bare-bottom and rockless. I'm wondering if anybody out there knows of any rocks that absolutely 100% will not absorb phosphate. Could even be plastic! But I wonder if there isn't another solution like ceramic. Something that's almost like a rock but doesn't absorb any phosphate. The rocks I have now just won't cut it for the method I'm trying to do. I want all the phosphate and nitrate to just be in the water until the scrubber can take them out. Also I will still have bio-blocks in the sump so there will still be areas for the beneficial bacteria to live. But they won't be under light!
So...about those artificial rocks. Or I was thinking even plastic frag racks. The fish are going to want some kind of cover that preferably looks natural. Or do they even really care? I've seen fish living in systems mostly meant for frags and they seem fine! Should I just go bare-bottom frag rack only? Probably a lot less cheesy than artificial rocks. Not entirely sure if I could live with myself if I got some cheesy plastic rocks meant for freshwater. Lol. Might have to say goodbye to keeping firefish since they really like having a dart hole.
I wanted to grow GSP though, that's what makes me think of plastic rocks. Just something that the gsp can grow over anyways. Any recommendations?