Hello folks! First post for thinking, unfortunately I've done too much of it lately. New reef keeper with a few speed bumps in maintenance. I'm trying to design a filter with the near impossible in mind: Mimicking nature with as little maintenance as possible. I'm unable to do a lot of the standard maintenance myself, and while I have excellent help keeping things up to snuff I cannot rely on her to haul untold gallons forever. The closest I've come up to so far combines several different ideology from several different filter methods; from the waves to mechanical removal, bacterial and balanced chemicals (not from a bottle). The idea is to keep the water so pristine and balanced that no water changes are needed, requiring a fill up in the sump, or potentially a reverse pressure siphon when the sumps level gets too low.
The first part of the system would be separate from most of the plumbing, a 10% refugium doubling as a tide pool. Assisting in denitrification as well as a second tank for inverts and higher water column detrivores. This ones the simple one. I'm curious how doubling this one with mud for a dead area would pan out.
Next would be the mechanical filtration. I'm talking skimmer, mud, algae scrubber (debating this one as a no, semi-redundant with the algae growing in the mud) and berlin to catch whichever stragglers make it through here. The ideas a long system to run it through multiple style filters to keep the toxins out of the water and the reef as pristine as humanly possible. Refilling as it gets low would be a siphoning system that activates via gravity and continually adds drops instead of gallons to accommodate for evaporation.
This is where things get a little more interesting. And its made my brain hurt for longer than I care to admit. Balancing the chemicals naturally using flora and fauna (both micro and macro) within the system. They are sodium ion (Na+), chloride (Cl-), sulfate (SO42-), magnesium ion (Mg2+), calcium ion (Ca2+), and potassium ion (K+) found at (in percentages)
55% sodium ion, 31% chloride, 8% sulfate, 4% magnesium ion, 1% calcium ion, and 1% potassium ion. There's a thousand different compounds all in trace amounts in the ocean, these are just the most abundant. The nature way of doing this would be something far from the reef system: Rivers. As they erode away most of the chemicals they flow down to the ocean where things balance themselves out. While I'd love to add a functioning river system to the reef, its physically impossible without owning an ocean and mountain. The question here is: How to mimic the steady deposit of minerals in a stable manner? My first reaction and thought to this would be to add the chemicals in the correct ratios to the reservoir that tops off the water level automatically.
Inside the tank itself should be just as diverse as the outside filtration systems interacting with each other. After all, Ecosystems are far far more diverse than what we can keep at home in our little water boxes. Live sand, complete with the worms and bugs that keep things churned up, dead areas in the water where flow cant reach it like the caves and crevices in the rocks and coral, the algae eaters, detrivores, carnivores, all maxi, mini, micro and macro, Plant, animal, bacteria, diversity! As well as the substrate. I'm debating multiple substrates here as well: Mud, clay, sand, crushed coral, and gravel in separate areas of the tank in each of the proper levels.
I know theres probably a ton of holes in this thinking, and thats why I turn to you more experienced aquarists, theorists, thinkers, ponderers, brains, and befuddlers theres never a "right way" to mimic infinite areas of the planet that are as diverse as the tanks we keep. The only way to try to properly mimic nature is to let nature balance itself and make the choice for what works and what fails. I believe this system could do the job in a disabled-capable cleaning/maintenance routine, simply being skimmer, algae trimming, and bottle replacement for chemicals and reservoir.
The first part of the system would be separate from most of the plumbing, a 10% refugium doubling as a tide pool. Assisting in denitrification as well as a second tank for inverts and higher water column detrivores. This ones the simple one. I'm curious how doubling this one with mud for a dead area would pan out.
Next would be the mechanical filtration. I'm talking skimmer, mud, algae scrubber (debating this one as a no, semi-redundant with the algae growing in the mud) and berlin to catch whichever stragglers make it through here. The ideas a long system to run it through multiple style filters to keep the toxins out of the water and the reef as pristine as humanly possible. Refilling as it gets low would be a siphoning system that activates via gravity and continually adds drops instead of gallons to accommodate for evaporation.
This is where things get a little more interesting. And its made my brain hurt for longer than I care to admit. Balancing the chemicals naturally using flora and fauna (both micro and macro) within the system. They are sodium ion (Na+), chloride (Cl-), sulfate (SO42-), magnesium ion (Mg2+), calcium ion (Ca2+), and potassium ion (K+) found at (in percentages)
55% sodium ion, 31% chloride, 8% sulfate, 4% magnesium ion, 1% calcium ion, and 1% potassium ion. There's a thousand different compounds all in trace amounts in the ocean, these are just the most abundant. The nature way of doing this would be something far from the reef system: Rivers. As they erode away most of the chemicals they flow down to the ocean where things balance themselves out. While I'd love to add a functioning river system to the reef, its physically impossible without owning an ocean and mountain. The question here is: How to mimic the steady deposit of minerals in a stable manner? My first reaction and thought to this would be to add the chemicals in the correct ratios to the reservoir that tops off the water level automatically.
Inside the tank itself should be just as diverse as the outside filtration systems interacting with each other. After all, Ecosystems are far far more diverse than what we can keep at home in our little water boxes. Live sand, complete with the worms and bugs that keep things churned up, dead areas in the water where flow cant reach it like the caves and crevices in the rocks and coral, the algae eaters, detrivores, carnivores, all maxi, mini, micro and macro, Plant, animal, bacteria, diversity! As well as the substrate. I'm debating multiple substrates here as well: Mud, clay, sand, crushed coral, and gravel in separate areas of the tank in each of the proper levels.
I know theres probably a ton of holes in this thinking, and thats why I turn to you more experienced aquarists, theorists, thinkers, ponderers, brains, and befuddlers theres never a "right way" to mimic infinite areas of the planet that are as diverse as the tanks we keep. The only way to try to properly mimic nature is to let nature balance itself and make the choice for what works and what fails. I believe this system could do the job in a disabled-capable cleaning/maintenance routine, simply being skimmer, algae trimming, and bottle replacement for chemicals and reservoir.
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