SantaMonica
Well-known member
sjm817: Well it's good then if turf pulls organics too; seems it pulls out everything that needs to come out, except large pieces of detritus. But any detritus in my tank goes through the powerheads, so maybe it's in a particulate form that's will disolve quick enough to be used by the turf before it get out of hand.
paulsilver, fishnfun: Yes that's apparently what happened. I test started the skimmer up again today and had foam, then shut it down again.
herring: I see what you meant now; the rotating idea is a way to "fluf up" the turf so it gets moved in different directions, thus allowing light to hit all sides of the turf strands. Well, now that I've had my hands on the turf, I'm not sure they would flex all that much. This turf that I got from IA really feel like artificial turf on a football field (although it may grow more). You may not see it in the video I posted, but when the water flows over it, it does not move at all. So, water flowing in the opposite direction probably would not move it that way as much easier.
Anyways, another day of turf-only filtering. P and N same today. Heavy plankton and phyto. I think my green bubble is growing for the first time (might just be me). The one clam continues to be unhappy.
I got another pump to replace the Rio... an Eheim 1260. Even though it was rated less than the Rio 2100, it was putting out much more flow at 4 feet. This time, there really was water splattering as it came out of the spraybar, and it sounded that way too, and it was splashing the side of the bucket (compared to the lesser flow which sounded like a small tabletop waterfall and did not spash at all and where the sides of the buck were totally dry). So I put the Rio back on and ordered the next size smaller Eheim. The short time the higher flow was going, it pushed some of the turf down the screen a bit, into small clumps. The water now has to travel over the clumps, but it still in no way leaves any dead spots. Another thing with the larger flow... it filled faster than it drained. So if the pump ever would stick on "fill", then it would overflow.
The tape is starting to leak a few drops; I put a bowl under to catch it for now, but this weekend I might look for more solid connectors. Green algae is just starting at bottom one inch of the bucket; this is the area always covered with water because the drain hole does not go all the way to the bottom. But, there is nothing growing on the sides, which is good since the white bucket reflects more of the light back to the turf.
Question: Is it possible that the turf is not really doing anything, and it's really the rocks that are doing the work?
paulsilver, fishnfun: Yes that's apparently what happened. I test started the skimmer up again today and had foam, then shut it down again.
herring: I see what you meant now; the rotating idea is a way to "fluf up" the turf so it gets moved in different directions, thus allowing light to hit all sides of the turf strands. Well, now that I've had my hands on the turf, I'm not sure they would flex all that much. This turf that I got from IA really feel like artificial turf on a football field (although it may grow more). You may not see it in the video I posted, but when the water flows over it, it does not move at all. So, water flowing in the opposite direction probably would not move it that way as much easier.
Anyways, another day of turf-only filtering. P and N same today. Heavy plankton and phyto. I think my green bubble is growing for the first time (might just be me). The one clam continues to be unhappy.
I got another pump to replace the Rio... an Eheim 1260. Even though it was rated less than the Rio 2100, it was putting out much more flow at 4 feet. This time, there really was water splattering as it came out of the spraybar, and it sounded that way too, and it was splashing the side of the bucket (compared to the lesser flow which sounded like a small tabletop waterfall and did not spash at all and where the sides of the buck were totally dry). So I put the Rio back on and ordered the next size smaller Eheim. The short time the higher flow was going, it pushed some of the turf down the screen a bit, into small clumps. The water now has to travel over the clumps, but it still in no way leaves any dead spots. Another thing with the larger flow... it filled faster than it drained. So if the pump ever would stick on "fill", then it would overflow.
The tape is starting to leak a few drops; I put a bowl under to catch it for now, but this weekend I might look for more solid connectors. Green algae is just starting at bottom one inch of the bucket; this is the area always covered with water because the drain hole does not go all the way to the bottom. But, there is nothing growing on the sides, which is good since the white bucket reflects more of the light back to the turf.
Question: Is it possible that the turf is not really doing anything, and it's really the rocks that are doing the work?