Holy cow, what a cool piece of equipment. Where does the fiberglass circles come from?
It's just fiberglass or PVC roofing material bought at a building supply store and cut into 2 foot diameter circles. There are 50 of them and then 50 more polystyrene circles I bought from a local plastic company. Total surface area is 600 square feet.
We have been working a great deal with reservoirs in the southwest, where they lack the aquatic vegetation. Lake Havasu has been a model of success, utilizing mass amounts of artificial habitat products to grow periphyton.
Being a fisherman and not a biologist, I still feel a mixture of many different materials, both natural and artificial gives fish variety to choose from. Our studies have shown bass for example, will use the wood early in the spring as water warms and the wood retains the heat. As the summer heat shines,then navigate to PVC which stays cooler than the wood.
Thanks for your insight.
Well where natural things are missing I'm sure artificial substrate can make a difference. The above RBC is capable of supporting 200 lbs. of fish. I'm not sure but it would seem it would be able to add 200 more lbs. of carrying capacity to my trout pond as far as additional nitrification if there are no problems with algae and suspended solids?
