Fyi-dom

Hey tangy... alot of people have never heard of trying that. CR was just trying to help people and give them some advice, as I am sure a lot of people actually TRIED it after reading this post. Tangy, if you have been in this hobby and run a store for 40yrs like you say, you should know the names of things by now. There is no sense in running somebody down over them helping other people with information that is actually helpful.

 

I wish Matt was still running those Thread of the Month contests.

This one should be one of the candidates in the running because most newer people have never heard of this.

 

Thats exactly my point curt.

 

I love my protein skimmer. You'll have to pry it out of my dead, cold hands. However, there is a limit to their effectiveness. Skimming can only remove hydrophobic (water hating) molecules. Unless you run your skimmate very wet, it will not remove hydrophillic (water loving) molecules.

Next to ozone and protein skimming, GAC (Granular Activated Carbon) is one of the most efficient ways of removing undesirable organics (both hydrophobic and hydrophillic) that make the water less clear like tannins, humic acid, etc. As Tom indicated, not only that, many softies exude various alleopathic compounds (chemical warfare substances) including terpenes which are fairly nasty to keep other corals from growing nearby. Some of these Terpenes are hydrophobic and can be skimmed out but others are hydrophillic and will merely accumulate over time and can only be removed with waterchanges and GAC. In some people's tanks, the accumulation of these hydrophillic terpenese are responsible for slowed growth in corals, death of corals, etc. That's why I advocate the use of both a protein skimmer AND GAC.

 

I love my ozone generator I have not ran a tank witout one one since I saw what they could do .. in 1970 it looked like piggy bank with the short cord that looked like a tail it was a old saunders ..





ittle pig looking unit was my first they do a wounderful job in keeping water crystal clear..

 

BTW,

This is what a yellowing strip like Tangster was talking about looks like.