[pogodzib]

Originally Posted by NATIVEVAMAN

John,I know that from time to time it may seem that some of us are being less than kind when resonding to some things here on RB.For my part and I believe for Brians part nothing could be further from the truth.There are times when a minimal passing comment will do nicely,however from time to time a subject comes along that we are passionate about,so it gets more than a passing comment.I do not often presume to speak for Brian but I feel safe in saying for him and myself that if we didnt care about others tanks and there health we might be in a chat room somewhere talking trash lol.

I run into two issues when I post. Not just in this thread, but in many threads. When you post too little, people don't know that you have a reason for not agreeing with something and just think that your disagreeing for the purpose of disagreeing or the say they are surprised

you ever tried Skimmers, BSB, Refugium's, T5's light, LR,etc...

I am VERY open to trying new equipment, while keeping my existing equipment running. Do I recommend new equipment to help solve a problem over equipment that has been around longer and proven to work, not usually. I'd rather recommend equipment that is proven to work rather than recommend using equipment that may work and may not work. Additives are another thing though. Once you add them to a tank, it is doesn't work or causes problems, you can't just take it back offline and remove it easily. If you post more, you get told you

Ramble on

. Because of this, I usually try to stay short for my initial post in threads unless I feel it gets to a point that it is beneficial to know the reason why I feel a certain way. I never try to be rude when responding, and as many of you know, I always try to be as helpful as I can be. Now, with that said, had anyone even attempted to try to answer any of the questions that I presented? No. The reason is because you don't have a good answer.

Originally Posted by dinor2

I am curious to see what the experienced reefers would do in my case. In my refugium (or overflow box) I have a small amount of lr rubble, lots of pods and would like to add either cheato to this part of the overflow but now I'm wondering if it would be better to add a mini dsb in there and shoot, forget the name of the plant now. The really tall skinny plants that curl toward the top but need sand to live? Anyways, which one would benefit a 55gallon system more? I know both would help compete algae for nutrients in the water, is one better than the other?

Mini DSB can help improve your water quality, but you need to remember that the total volume of them are relatively small compared to your tank volume, so they aren't as effective as cheato.

[Gohn]

Brian, I listen to, respect and most often adhere to the practices and advice of the wise veterans here. I especially appreciate your RB posts. Your concise answers are size appropriate, open minded and respectful. You just point one in an informative direction. I'm a babe in the (reef). As a veteran fish keeper of 40+ yrs. I still have much to learn. I read a lot, use RB and local reef "experts" (books, mags, lfs, lrs, RB information does get confusing and conflicting oftentimes.) The RB as a community helps to separate the wide variety of "strong" ideas and opinions all around us. With books, magazines + experts disagreeing one needs a community.to help sort things out. Thanks for all the help. Phew.

[dinor2]

Well, I do have a dsb in my dt and i believe that is helping a lot with water quality. The only thing about my refugium, the water doesn't turn very fast, it circulates but is very slow going and I thought cheato needed more water movement. This is what got me thinking of the other plant (why can't i remember what the name of that plant is? Those really tall plants that are found in brackish water in the wild?). My only concern with doing the latter is adding the sand in my overflow/refugium area, the water circulates by going down and under a space there at the bottom, so, thinking logically I guess I have just answered my own question! Cheato it is! I guess if I need to I can stir up the water once a day or so in there to keep it moving a little.

This make sense or am I way over in left field? I'd love to have this cheato in my system before adding more fish...

[pogodzib]

Cheato and caulerpa both do better in lower flow. I think the plant that your thinking of for the is mangroves.

[dinor2]

AH! That's it! Mangrove! Ok, thanks for the help, probably going to pick some up later tomorrow.

[jimw369]

Thanks for everyones posting.

Maybe this isnt the right place for this comment but its in so many threads nowdays and this is one of them. Way too complicated. To much about what doesnt need to be issues with salt.

Its not a hard hobby.( a lot of work and diligence maybe) There is little complicated about it. There is a lot to learn about salt about but easy to compprehend the basics of reefing. Enough so that most people can have a decent looking tank with little to no problems.

All this stuff is just blown way out of proportion.

Like Brian posted earlier...its not hard to keep a tank below detectable Nitrates. Dont need a bag of something to do that.

[unclejed]

In this hobby there aren't too many subjects you can just make a blanket statement about. Nitrates is one of them.