food for thought for the ats 'kool-aid' drinkers :p

[vitz]

http://www.coralscience.org/main/articles/climate-a-ecology-16/reef-sponge-recycling

HTH :D

[Wonton Soup]

What makes you think that people who use algae turf scrubbers are drinking the kool-aid any harder than somebody trying to cultivate a sponge in a reactor?

[vitz]

What makes you think that people who use algae turf scrubbers are drinking the kool-aid any harder than somebody trying to cultivate a sponge in a reactor?

who said anything about trying to cultivate sponges in a reactor? where did you get this from?

[Wonton Soup]

Obviously from the article you linked.
Halfway down the page it shows and briefly discusses just such an attempt which I'd say is relative to someone trying to replicate turf algae and it's filtering effects in an aquarium, which you referred to in your title.

[cakemanPA]

You post koolaid drinkers and expect to get any civilized discussion. Kind of stupid to post that way

[vitz]

i posted the article to simply point out that macroalgaes' role in the reef nutrient cycle isn't as important to it as was once thought, for one. and that algaes of any sort, including phyto, are certainly not responsible for ALL of the nutrient cycling there (THAT'S the kool-aid i'm refering to, heh).

the reactor shown in the article was a test vehicle used to measure/illustrate the viability of sponge for water processing, afaict-i don't think it's being touted as a major method in the article, but rather as something worth investigating. it certainly makes no claims as to what the sponge will or won't do to/in a home system.

(i do find your bringing up the point to be a bit of a 'red herring', honestly)

here's a quote from a major pro algae scrubber site:

They don't understand that algae provide all the filtration on reefs; there are no waterchanges, because reef water is basically 100% recirculated among itself. Algae is 90% of the biomass in the ocean (except bacteria). But they don't read these studies, or even a basic marine biology book, like "Introduction To Marine Biology", by Turner Small.

the research on sponges proves the 1st bolded statement to be patently false (it was patently false even before the development on sponge knowledge in the article, heh. (and it's another ingredient in the 'kool-aid' recipe).

the second bolded statement is misleading and out of context, as it no doubt includes phytoplankton, and to infer that macros are that large a %age of the life in the ocean is misleading and also false. as is any extrapolation from phyto nutrient uptake/release and macro nutrient uptake/release

i won't even deal w/the kool-aid about the water recirculating among itself.

[marty9876]

I like tropical punch kool-aid the best, what's your favorite flavor?

[dc]

Vitz, give it a rest.