Eight years of algae use to see what i can acheive,done!

[liquidg]

My passion with the hobby over the last 8 years, algae,all complete now!

There had to be an algae combo that would complete what a combination of land plants can achieve, importing and conversion of all toxins and nutrients, but in the aquarium!

Maybe a little messy looking to some, for sure, but there is no way with what is pushed at hobbyists that you would believe what all this mess achieves!

Algae area out side of the tank that needs trimming each 10 to 12 days.

Algae over the live rock between corals, plus that needs edging once a week!

Algae/corallines and other life forms all over the glass floor of my nano,they need trimming once each month or so.

All of the algae forms I use I put back into the system as mulch, sought of and comprises one and a half times my tanks surface area in total.

There has to be more then two forms to work together osmotically absorbing and converting what each individual algae is suited to in relation to varied nutrients and toxins.

They are in the tank and out of the tank to achieve this amount of algae content in the aquariums waters to give the aquarium pristine water quality always, with no skimmer or water changes.

I feed the waters iodine halogen complex, high quality marine sediment that I collect, a home made fish food mix and the algae trimmings killed and left in a bag in the water as they break down and reintroduce its photosynthesised content and the nitrite cycling algae flesh as it is broken down.

I never get sick of what non mainstream algae management can provide for the reef aquariums longevity and only a little maintenance to not bother with anything most have to do and use.

No phosphates, no nitrates and so on and so on, love what amazing water quality the algae’s when used properly combined with some horticulture ways can provide for your hobby.

Another experiment about to happen soon, hopefully I don’t loose anything, manuka honey used this way has not been done as far as I know, I don’t like the vodka dosing ways, it’s a not natural enough for me to value.

I get bored with the hobby so easily once something is completed successfully, the photosynthetic water purifying tests took 8 years to get here, the next out come will be much quicker I hope,lol.

[Blaukopf]

It's fantastic mate. We seem to rely on bacteria in our filters and chemicals to get by but nature has always had the answer in algae. I like how you have been able to have coral alongside the algae, looks great. Will be interested to hear of your future experiments.

[liquidg]

Yeh thanks for that.

Don’t get me wrong I use substantial amounts of very functional bio media housing aerobic and anaerobic bio communities out side of the tank as well.

They will continue to highly function as a result of settling styles of pre filtering, I never have to check them, just clean replace the home made settling pre filters once a week!

I had an idea from working amongst horticulture some years back after I got sick of the testing-skimmer-live rock ways of reef aquarium styles I had to persevere with after under gravels and then the inept styles of trickle filters.

I started out with under gravels, then made different trickle filters and from friends of a mate, the aquasonic bros, we tried out their ideas of live rock with skimmers, made some interesting skimmers, hated it, these forms of bio filtering were so weak compared to even under gravels, I always used reverse flow styles with pre filtering, not the average under gravels.

There had to be a way to harness nature as it cleans the planet for us from our rubbish we put onto it.

So I tried some things and got some results, nothing greatly, but it was enough to chase up the people that know marine algae-plants, I had no idea of how to use a computer back then and the net was just something spoken about to me.

I contact the guys I knew in the Q museum in ichthyology dept and they put me onto a teacher at Townsville of marine biologists,she knew but checked with others in the states and layed all that they knew on me.

She typed,for me my wife did the typing,lol, what do you want to know,I must have put 50 questions to her,lol,but she gracefully answered each one, that changed everything for me, I could put meanings to what I had seen occur in the systems i was playing with.

Now i had found the ways to harness nature in the aquarium,Merril was her name.

Over the last 8 years to the day nearly,the majour sites say it is a load of bull, except reef central, a couple of guys there are trying natures ways as well.

One of the guys said he is using malaises as I am just trying manuka honey, it will be interesting to see what comes from either way, he says it is working out really well so far.

I put my first dose of manuka in today.

Edited June 30, 2012 by liquidg

[Blaukopf]

A system with no water changes, it is like the aquarists dream. I bet it feels sweet to have it all work for you after you put so much into something which to this day most people say can't really be done. I don't have any reefing experience but I considered it standard to do live rock + skimmer + fluidized bed etc. although all the hardware used seems so clunky. Maybe more people can now have similar success.

[liquidg]

Not a chance mate, peoples ways to go at the hobby are controlled like you would not believe, it was bad enough in the 80s with the rip off styles of tricle filters that I must admit I became part of it and built and sold to shops as well, but over the last 15 years, there is no way this way of achieving spot on water will take off.

From what I have seen and experienced on the net and found in the industry over the 30 plus years in it, you would be amazed as I am of what is going on out there.

I wont go into it, thanks though, I love trying out ideas and using nature to do it, shame they take so long to conclude at times.