Saltcorner
By Bob Goemans
By Bob Goemans
Dear Mr. Goemans,
I live in Portugal and I have been a freshwater hobbyist for the last twenty years, though I have paid more attention to discus fish in the last six.
My intention is now to try a reef tank in my new apartment so I'm already planning it. I'll move in a year time and until there I'm going to read my whole "archive" of FAMA and TFH magazines that I have collected for the last 4 years.
I have already ordered several books through a friend of mine who is now in Miami on holidays, including your "Live Sand Secrets" and "Protein Skimming and Activated Carbon Secrets" booklets that I hope to receive soon.
Meanwhile, I would like to have, if possible, eventual additional information on NNR Plenum method by e-mail.
I would like also to hear your opinion about my intention to complement the plenum system with some kind of filtration using algae (Caulerpa). My idea for now is to put the plenum in a sump as you recently suggested and eventually make the water that comes from the plenum to pass through an algae bed, to help controlling nitrate and phosphate.
Thank you in advance for your attention
Cesar Silverio (Lisbon / Portugal)
P.S. I'm sure the article about Plenum Myths published in an old August issue of FAMA magazine caused you some concern.
Dear Cesar,
As for additional information on plenum type filtration, you're in luck as our interactive CD-ROM book (on a business card sized disc or regular size disc) "The New Wave" that Sam Gamble and I spent six years researching is still available. It leads the reader through the history of the aquarium to the present confusion centering on live rock and sandbed filtration. It factually focuses on the microbial side of filtration issues and presents leading edge data that has been reviewed for accuracy by a biochemist. If you want to understand how deep sandbeds, shallow sandbeds, mud systems, plenum systems and others function, you'll get the information right down to the microbial level! It's written with the beginner in mind, however, it also contains much advanced information so as to satisfy both the sophisticated aquarist and professional aquarium caretaker. See my website for ordering locations if interested.
As for using a combination of algae and a plenum system, one actually works against the other. One strives for a nutrient poor environment and the other requires a nutrient rich environment to exist.
As for that article in FAMA, the magazine received a very large amount of complaints about printing such a poorly written and thought out article. Actually, I met the author, Brightwell, at a MACNA event in Baltimore. He was a salesman for Kent Marine products and was the person who also wrote those negative ads on other company products that appeared in FAMA for quite awhile. In fact, he told me he wrote those ads. FAMA finally stopped those unprofessional ads after I mentioned they were the only magazine in the world allowing such negative ads. Then they suspended my column for a few months because they suddenly received a complaint that I was not giving equal coverage to all company products. Where that complaint came from is anybody's guess. But since then, things have gone well with everyone realizing I present fair and balanced views along with thoughts based on many decades of experience.
Bob
