but let's qualify his aquarium: Not a "reef" tank, by the typical appearance/definitions - and more importantly how many of us just go out to the beach, and get our water for water changes??? he is using reverse flow undergravel filtering as well...
LOL, I love being an odd ball. And it is true that I do not have a traditional reef tank.
My tank came about before the internet and all the cookie cutter reef tanks that many, but not all hobbiests have.
I only used about 10 gallons of real water in my tank this year, I was just too busy to collect water and I only collected some mud for the bacteria twice. I don't know if that qualifies as using NSW.
As for why you don't see reverse ug filters, that is an easy one. When this hobby started in 1971 we all had fresh water tanks, well the people who were born anyway.
I also had a fresh water tank for 20 years already but I recently converted it to brackish.
The UG filter lauded by Robert Straughn (The Father of Salt Water Fish Keeping) was the only device around. It was that or nothing. The problem was not with the UG filter but with the way we used it. Even Straughn did not understand about the bacteria aspect of the filter but he, like all of us used it as a particulate filter. Using it like this is a disaster and it will crash in 6 or 7 months forcing us to remove everything to clean it and the gravel in buckets of fresh water with a hose. We didn't want bacteria in our gravel and the dead coral branches were easy to remove to clean.
Years later when most of those authors you mentioned got into the hobby (Moe was the only one then, he started when I did) Tanks started to get more elaborate and we gradually learned about the advantages of bacteria. It was no longer easy to remove everything from the tank to clean the gravel so we (or most people) went to other more user friendly systems like bio balls and SSBs.
Algae was rampant but that is for another thread.
Anyway, the UG filter was not bad but we used it completely incorrectly.
It is extreamly efficient because it encompases the entire bottom of the tank as opposed to say a DSB which only exposes the top layer of sand to the water.
(Yes I know about the worms that dig in the sand and allow some slight water movement) I figured that if I could have the benefits of the UG filter without the clogging problem, I could make it work. I added a sponge filter on the inlet and ran it very slow and backwards.
I experimented for a number of years to get it so that there is practically no maintenance. Just a few minutes a couple of times a year and after 25 years I did a thorough cleaning. I am not sure if that is too much maintenance for some people.
But anyway, the "Experts" in this hobby were all writing about "New" methods of running a tank. I happen to be a friend of Bob Goemans, he was pushing live sand and still does. When he saw my tank 20 years ago he was amazed that it was running so long with almost no maintenance using an UG filter.
No one wanted to go "backwards" to mention a UG filter for fear of ruining their reputation. Also a UG filter is very cheap and it lasts forever. Marketing such a thing would be suicide for a manufacturer. Bio balls were expensive and required a large container with a complicated (and expensive) spray bar.
As for the algae trough, I have had one on and off for 50 years or so in salt and fresh tanks. My design collects no detritus at all and again only takes a couple of minutes every few months to maintain. It cost about $2.00 to make.
I would like to tell a story about "Old Technology" Old technology does not mean useless technology. (The pyramids are still standing the last time I looked)
I was the general foreman electrician in the Plaza Hotel. We were doing a major overhaul of the building. It was built in 1907, just before electricity was widely used in NY.
The ejector pumps in the basement that pumped out the sewage were installed in 1907 and were powered by steam, no electricity. They worked flawlessly for almost 100 years. Then they needed some parts. The parts were no longer made so we installed three state of the art 3 Phase electric pumps controlled by an elaborate computer system. In the three years I worked there, we changed that system twice. :wavehand:
Why do the various speakers at MACNA or other conferences not keep pushing this system as *THE* approach for a better aquarium system????
I'm a speaker, well I spoke twice and I push the system. Not too hard because I like having the oldest system around :lmao:
