"Pszemol" wrote in message
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"swarvegorilla" wrote in message
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Even the barrier reef is mainly algae species, coral is a distant second.

It is very hard to compare real ocean to our fish tanks...

The only point I wanted to make is that with the proper dedication and
research there is no reason a coupla cycled air sponge filters could not
support a nice tank of damsels, pair clowns, dottyback, maybe a bicolour
angel and lawn mower blenny.

I would always like such statements backed up with a nice pictures
showing beautiful tanks with no problematic algae running this way :-)
How are you progressing in making such photos of your tanks ?

What are the levels of nitrates and phosphates in your tanks ?
What is your maintenance schedule ? How often do you play with
the tanks ? How big is the tank from the above mentioned example ?

If it's going to be a full reef then you need to get serious on your
equipment level.
chillers and lights need to be bought
suppliments to promote coral growth over algae
all sorts crap.

What supplements would you add ?
How do they work in supporting corals to outcompete algae in our tanks?

'Display' is a sense of mind. Yes maybe a tank in a hotel is going to
have to be 'a slice of the ocean' with no visable filters and exotic
corals.
but a tank in the living room, stocked with conscienscously chosen fish
that do well in captivity, and a bit of maintenence is also what I call a
display.

What I say by "display" is the tank which has PRIMARY concern: aesthetics.
It simply has to LOOK nice.
The different story is for example in breeding tanks or grow up tanks...
In such tanks you do not care much about how do they look - what you
care for is that you can cram a lot of fish in smalles possible tank
without sacrificing their health and well being... So if you have to
add big and ugly filter in the center of the tank - do it... Again, you
do not care about aesthetics in a grow-up tanks. It can be ugly but
it has to work. Opposite to your show tank in living room - it cannot be
an eyesore with visible plumbing or a lot of hair algae covering rocks.

That said bring on the requirements as you see them for a 'display' tank
Don't forget the UVC and kalk dosers.


UVC is a no-no for a reef tank.
You want to encourage the plankton growth in the water
instead of killing it with UVC lamp...
You filter feeding animals like clams, scallops, feather dusters,
sponges will feed on unicellular algae in the water preventing the
green water problems you might want to fight withUVC lamp in FO tanks.


Ok lemme get back to this sorry
but one other little advantage is bubble filtration is little critter
friendly
much less damaging than impellors and the like.
I'd also like to just say that as a combo filter they work well
but ya sleep n stuff