The Argument For Leaving Mechanical Filtration

[Snoopdog]

So I have never been one to really like mechanical filtration. My nitrates and phosphates were non existent for a long time, I fought dinoflagellates then cyano and lastly green hair algae. As those fights were coming to an end as my nitrates and phosphates started going up, likely they were tied into the nuisance algae. I was cleaning the skimmer and socks quite often, the filter socks were getting to almost every 3 days for a good cleaning involving bleach and then further soaking in RO/DI water. I finally tried chaeto again with a fist size piece and this time I really blasted it with light. I went from a fist size piece to this in around 3-4 weeks. I do not know if you can tell how much that is, but it is very dense. It goes from the top to the bottom of the sump. There are literally thousands of pods in there. The main tank green hair algae and cyano are completely gone, nitrates went from 50 to .02 in weeks.

I just wanted to share my journey for leaving the skimmer and socks behind. The tank is a Red Sea E260. The last picture is of the pods destroying a piece of leftover flake food.

 

[sarcophytonIndy]

You summarized my experiences exactly.