There are 2 things many people constantly fight in their tanks, the main 2 pollutants, nitrate and phosphates. There are of course various ways of reducing them ranging from chemical absorption to biological ways of dealing with them. However IMO you can't beat mother nature's way of dealing with these pollutants in our aquarium and done in a natural way and that is with the use of algae (nature also has other ways of course).
IMO the best way to cultivate algae is with an algae scrubber for the reasons stated below. Algae use nitrates and phosphates as a food source as it does in the oceans. Since making and using my ATS I have no need for Rowaphos, pellets or Nopox etc etc.
Many years ago our algae scrubbers were simply to grow the likes of Caulerpa in our tanks later in our sumps but the method was not the most efficient. Now we have the much more efficient ATS either DIY or off the shelf units. I have 2 ATS's on my current reef tank a DIY waterfall scrubber and a Santa Monica HOG2 both work very well and are cleaned in rotation.
What better way to reduce nitrate and phosphates using mother nature's way of dealing with them after all mother nature has had many millions of years to perfect her ways and with great success of course. She has a way of dealing with just about everything but not always all the man made pollutants and issues we throw at it. She has done many years of research,trial and error and always arrives at the perfect solution for any given problem.
My philosophy with reefkeeping is try and mimic nature as much as is possible and you won't go far wrong. This philosophy and stood me in good stead for around 30 plus years of my 36 years in reefkeeping. I still do the odd water change but not as much as I used to and maintenance of my ATS's is minimal.
I also retain my skimmer (yes the reefs have their own type of skimmer) but not sure I really need to but it still pulls out skimmate even though it's lighter and not producing quite as much as before I employed my ATS. I have just completed my new A4 sized waterfall ATS which is going on my new 100gallon reef tank. and expect it to give me the same success as the A5 one I currently have on my70 gallon reef tank.
IMO the best way to cultivate algae is with an algae scrubber for the reasons stated below. Algae use nitrates and phosphates as a food source as it does in the oceans. Since making and using my ATS I have no need for Rowaphos, pellets or Nopox etc etc.
Many years ago our algae scrubbers were simply to grow the likes of Caulerpa in our tanks later in our sumps but the method was not the most efficient. Now we have the much more efficient ATS either DIY or off the shelf units. I have 2 ATS's on my current reef tank a DIY waterfall scrubber and a Santa Monica HOG2 both work very well and are cleaned in rotation.
What better way to reduce nitrate and phosphates using mother nature's way of dealing with them after all mother nature has had many millions of years to perfect her ways and with great success of course. She has a way of dealing with just about everything but not always all the man made pollutants and issues we throw at it. She has done many years of research,trial and error and always arrives at the perfect solution for any given problem.
My philosophy with reefkeeping is try and mimic nature as much as is possible and you won't go far wrong. This philosophy and stood me in good stead for around 30 plus years of my 36 years in reefkeeping. I still do the odd water change but not as much as I used to and maintenance of my ATS's is minimal.
I also retain my skimmer (yes the reefs have their own type of skimmer) but not sure I really need to but it still pulls out skimmate even though it's lighter and not producing quite as much as before I employed my ATS. I have just completed my new A4 sized waterfall ATS which is going on my new 100gallon reef tank. and expect it to give me the same success as the A5 one I currently have on my70 gallon reef tank.
By unnatural I am of course referring to the fact you are using chemicals in the pellets to encourage and grow bacteria in an unnatural way. Compare that to say Siporax which just uses micro pores to house and encourage nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria to colonise it without the use of any other sustances.
I feed what fish eat in the sea such as clams and raise amphipods in the tank that I collect all summer. I also add mud from the sea all the time for the bacteria. I also use an algae scrubber to control nutrients. It seems to work as everything in my tank has looked good since seawater was invented, probably by Al Gore or Brian Williams. 
