What a great idea! Or, was it?

Eienna · Feb 21, 2014

Bouncingsoul39 said:
Regarding the use of terrestrial greens, if the practice is really no bueno then why do we see so many public aquariums feeding their herbivores with broccoli, mustard, collard, and other dark leaft greens? They do so because they're inexpensive and they work. All of the hobbyist products in this realm are ridiculously over priced especially the live stuff that you have to have shipped to you. You could buy a lot of Nori from the Japanese market for a fraction of the price of that stuff too.

Inexpensive? You must not live in CA...
That said....
I was reading that they used to use lettuce. That has far less nutrition than the darker greens like spinach. Even with that improvement, though, I believe seaweed contains some things that terrestrial greens just don't.

box209 · Feb 24, 2014

My 40b I set up back in January I used pure ammonia to help kick start the cycle. Sure it took 2 months to fully cycle but hey it's worth not having a fish I don't want in my tank and not have to sacrifice a fish which I think is cruel. Now I just have to order some pods and grab some cheato and I'm set to go and stock my tank with some of those UC gems

Useful_Idiot · Feb 25, 2014

Man this forum has some really good info. What's your opinion on detritus removal? I like to let it settle in my sump for siphoning but there's the people who put a powerhead in there to keep it in suspension so the skimmer can remove it. I don't agree with this, I feel detritus is not going to disolve into liquid and be something the skimmer can remove. I feel like it's just going to go back into the display where there's a 1000 more places for it to get stuck especially if you have a sandbed.

Another quick question I'm going to set up another system. My current setup is moderately stocked yet never reads nitrate or phosphate even though I feed heavy. Is that because of my large water volume from a basement sump diluting it or because of a lot of live rock processing it? I'd like to cut back on one or the other to be able to play with the nitrate level.