IMPERATORFAN said:
If the Berlin method is cycling the waste all the way through to a gaseous state and out of the aquirium, does that mean that you don't have to do partial water changes?
The Berlin method doesn't convert all waste to nitrogen gas. A
DSB is required to do this and, lately, problems have arisen with those when used in the main tank...they seem to start causing problems after about 5 years. They also only process nitrate. There are many other contaminants in the tank besides nitrate. So,
IMO, not doing regular water changes is not an option. I'm sure I'll make someone mad here, but to quote Anthony Calfo on water changes: "Aquarist who claim they do water changes less often (than monthly) or not at all are not doing the industry a favor by bragging that they can't kill most things in their tank no matter how hard they try. It's just luck and the grace of God. If you send 100 chickens running across a busy freeway, some are going to make it across, but the rest are going to be hood ornaments. It's just a matter of statistics. (Book of Coral Propagation, page 161)" Meaning some folks can get by with it with luck, but that's all. Dilution is the solution to pollution.
I see your point about the amount of
LR that I could fit in a fuge. I guess I'm still going to consider this option. I'm kicking around the idea of building my own stand around a fairly large fuge (say about 60 gals), since I obviously can't fit that through the back opening of a cookie cutter stand). One plus for this method would be a fairly simple conversion to a reef system down the road, since I'd already be doing a good portion of the advanced filtering less the kalwasser (sp) and trace element supplementation, etc. I'm also considering setting up a macro algae farm in this "fuge".
A fuge is a great idea. I would say that it will improve your tank immeasurably. One thing I would warn you about is the use of caulerpa though. It exudes toxins that inhibit the growth of coral and requires frequent and careful pruning to prevent it from crashing and fouling the tank. When it crashes, all the nutrients that is has absorbed are released back into the tank. I'm not saying you can't use it, just that you have to be careful with it. I'm going to do a seagrass fuge next time...probably using turtle grass.
I still need to weigh the pros and cons. I'm only going to go to extreme's with advanced filtering if it's going to make my weekly maintenance requirements go down in terms of fewer if any water changes and much less diatoms than my last go at it. Do you think this will work out as planned, or would I be better off going wet/dry with protien skimmer and betting on the
RO/
DI to control the diatoms? Also, I read an article by Thiel that said that the
RO/
DI filters only work for a very short period of time (in terms of silicates) and that the sand that I'd be using would leach out silicates into the water ... thereby defeating the purpose of all my
RO/
DI efforts.
Well, I can't say I agree with that statement even if it was made by Theil. The
RO membrane uses rejection to filter the water. It doesn't actually "filter" like a floss or paper filter does. It just lets certain size molecules through...the rest are rejected and sent out via the wastewater line. The water then goes through the
DI chamber for a final polish and removal of the last bit of dissolved solids. Whether the sand will leach out the silicates or not I can't say. The diatoms will consume the silicates until there isn't enough left to support them, then they will die off. Really,
IMO, the wet/dry is more of an extreme filtering option than the Berlin method using the
LR and
LS. The
RO unit removes much more than just dirt and silicates. It will, when used in conjunction with a sediment and carbon block filter, remove chlorine, chloramine, copper, zinc, other heavy metals, chemicals, bacteria, nitrate, ect... Properly treated
RO/
DI water is about as pure as you can get.
Can you specifically test for silicates to see if what you're doing is working?
Yes, I know Seachem makes a test kit for silicate...I'm sure there are others. I would not trust anything other than Seachem or Salifert although I'm looking into the Hanna kits.
... and, how do you get
RO/
DI ... do you have to buy a special filter? Someone at a
LFS mentioned that they just buy distilled or buy it from one of these water dispensing machines that you buy filtered water by the gallon. Do these options work?
You can buy
RO water from a Wal Mart or other store that has a dispenser. You can also use distilled. I think you'll find that it's a bit of a pain to do this if you're using much water at all though. You can buy your own
RO/
DI unit that will fit under your kitchen sink if you wish. I recommend the Aqua FX units. I won't go into my sales pitch here, but if you want to know more about them, feel free to PM me and I'll tell you why I feel they are superior to most other units out there.
Sorry for all the freshman questions ... apparently I've got more cathing up to do than I figured!
No problem at all. You are asking pertinent questions that show you are doing some research. I hope we can give you advice that will help you get a successful tank going.
welcome back...
