Back in the mid- to late 1980's, I set up a 30 gallon Marine aquarium. I followed all of the recognized best practices of the time (short of the hyper-expensive trickle filters the Germans were all excited about). I used a good, deep crushed coral bed with a quality undergravel filter and powerheads. I used a reliable external filter with mechanical and chemical filtration. I bought bottled water from the supermarket. I used the leading sea salt mix. I performed regular water changes, bought healthy non-cyanide caught fish, and practiced good aquarium husbandry. In spite of all this, I failed miserably, utterly and completely. Everything that entered that aquarium died. It was my own aquatic killing fields. Poseidon still has a contract out on me.

As it turns out (viewed from the current Marine aquarist's point of view), I never stood much of a chance. My lighting was completely inadequate, the undergravel filter is widely viewed as a cesspool, mechanical filtration leads to excessive, poisonous nitrates and chemical filtration is useful only in very specific (and undesireable) situations. Now, the current system of choice is an aquarium full of scummy rock.

Yup, you read that right. Plop fifty or a hundred pounds of bacteria laden coral reef rock into your aquarium, and it'll pretty much filter itself. Well, it isn't quite that simple, but it's pretty damned close. And I couldn't possibly fail at something so simple, could I?

Check out ElderReef and find out ;-)