Mortis

Thanks for the info. Im going to give it a shot in a few months. I have to paint the room where my display tank is so Ill have to tear it down. The tank is 10 years old so needs replacing anyways. Ill be transferring a few stems each of the plants I want to keep into a spare nano tank I have so Ill try RR before doing that. Also farm plants are grown in different ways. Some are grown in shallow pools so sometimes the bottom sections can have some algae or if the plant flops over and some of it is resting on the surface. Its rare but can happen. Usually with farm plants algae comes into the pic due to deteriorating health while its in shipping causing some mushy leaves and then when its stored in a holding tank before going out to customers. In general I can easily deal with most algae outbreaks when they occur however my biggest weakness is BBA. No matter what I do I always get BBA. Im familiar with the usual algae prevention and control methods but I have to admit that I fail miserably at keeping organics in check because Im extremely lazy when it comes to maintenance. I dont clean the external filters often enough which is why I use 2 of them when 1 would suffice to ensure that flow doesnt reduce drastically. But still they do gather a lost of waste in there. I have tried many methods of cleaning the substrate including those battery powered vacuum cleaners but I cant get the flow balance right. Either I clog the siphon with substrate or barely move it or I uproot my carpet. So for the new tank Im going to make it a bit more sterile by doing RR for all the plants that go in. Bleach all rocks and DW and only use RO for water changes.

Like several others, I signed up just for this thread. Very interesting concept and I appreciate the large amounts of effort, time and money put into this. I have a couple of questions : 1] Obviously the best time to employ reverse respiration is when setting up a new tank since it will provide you with a clean slate if your other new planted tank cycling parameters are met. Sometimes we use reuse plants from our old setups, sometimes we buy some new submerged plants from other hobbyists, sometimes we buy new plants from a shop or farm and maybe even all 3. My question pertains to the last option. Shop and farm plants mostly tend to be emmersed-grown before we plant them and it converts to submerged growth. Has anyone tried RR with emmersed grown plants ? Or the current trend of TC plants although they are supposed to be algae free and dont really need it but maybe just to check if the health boosts do anything to help them settle quicker ? 2] Has RR been tried with any sensitive or thin leaved/stemmed plants ? I mostly see some more robust plants being used in the tests so Im curious as to the success rate with some of the more fragile or sensitive plants that are in atleast an acceptable or recoverable state of health.