Water quality improvers. How and what do they do?

[jrnannery]

Ok, we have skimmers. They remove nutrients from the water and collect this waste into a green sludge that goes well over pancakes.

Next, we have media reactors. You can run calcium, GFO, activated carbon, Zeolite, Bio-pellets, etc., ad nauseum. What do each of these things do specifically?

Then, there are UV sterilizers. Where do they go, normally? At the end of the whole process (ie, in the return line from your pump), or somewhere in between? Are they normally fed by a pump, or plumbed into the drain line or the return line?

Algal Turf Mats. So many styles, so DIY. These act similarly to the Chaeto (or whatever macro algae you use) in your sump to remove organic nutrients from your water. They are essentially a section of plastic screen with a thouroughly roughed-up surface placed approxiamately vertically with a good amount of water flow over the surface. The algae grows onto the surface, which must be partially scraped clean every week or two. You can find many different styles online. They also seem to be copepod factories. Any missing info here?

What else, folks? Little neck clams in the sump bottom? Mangroves? What else?

By the way, don't put skimmate on your pancakes. It was a joke, and that's just gross!!

[CoryDude]

Green water reactors. Phytoplankton have also been shown to reduce nutrients as well.