[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks Kevin and Dawn! It's challenging to make time, this time of year, for some reason. But things are progressing.

In the meantime it's interesting to discuss methods, philosophies, etc.

There's still not a lot of good info on marine planted tanks. They do require a shift in thinking, compared to reef tanks, or even fish only tanks. Dispensing with artificial filtration flies in the face of accepted conventions. But when your main subject matter does the filtration for you, why bother? The trick is to understand how much Nature can do in our man-made systems, and what we have to do, to assist. For example, I've found that despite populating the tank with numerous detrivores and filter feeders, detritus still accumulates. This happens in our closed systems, and also in seagrass meadows. Since it is a display, some tidying up is called for, so I occasionally remove some detritus.

The goal for me is to let Nature do most of the work, so I can stretch out on the couch and watch.