nitrate solution????

so i was talking to this guy at my local marine store (its one of my many "candy stores") this guy started his tank with just the plastic parts of an undergravel filter. he says its not hooked up, he just put sand on top of plastic grids. he was saying that the idea was to create an anreobic pocket that would break down the nitrates. since its anerobic bacteria that breaks down nitrates
now i wasnt sure if that would work. i know that spounges make great home for nitrates, but that because they are in a high flow areas with lots of areobic bacteria, right... just thought i would share with you guys, casue even in the short time i have been on this fourm, the people here are awesome and know there stuff, and are nice too.

 

i was always under the impression that algie weeds eats nitrates thats why when i designd my wet/dry i added a grow area to add some weeds, now im jus thinkin about adding a fuge of to the side because of water flow

i think what u have described with the undergravel filter sounds like a plenum? there is alot of info on here about them if u do a search

from what ive read on them they sound like high maintanence id rather try growing some weeds before i went to that extreme

but thats just my opinion

 

thanx, i didnt know what to call it, and as always there was some great info in just the old fourms. i luv this site...
why i didnt of doing i will never know...mabye i should cut back on how much i smoke...

 

Thats very interesting, I never heard of that, but I dont see how thats functional when all kinds of bacteria need some kind of flow. I want to see what the real gurus have to say about this.

 

so do i thats why i posted it here, cause you guys are the best that i have found.

 

I would be careful about doing something like this. Too large an anaerobic pocket can cause some bad juju. I'm so paranoid about this, in all the tanks I set up, I use about 1.5" long 2" PVC pipe drilled through in multiple places to act as standoffs for my live rock so I don't get large anaerobic areas where the base rock sits down in the sand.

 

Personally, I wouldn't do this as eventually you will just be adding a large area for detritus to collect through the processes of diffusion and advection.
Their are other alternatives to reducing nitrates, however, i wouldn't be to concerned about nitrates as many living animals require it for food and nutrients.
I always maintain my nitrates and 10-15ppm with great success. My anemone, corals, numerous filter feeders and tridacna clams love it and thrive under these conditions!

 

Oh No Don't Let Tangster see this thread.

Yes It sounds like a Plenum. But not a well thought out one. You will get a build up of nastyness under the plastic that will build and build until one day it will burp. Then you would likely have a dead tank.
To avoid this regular maintenance would need to be done. That could involve taking the entire tank apart.
It really takes huge amounts of planing to run a plenum system. This could be why they are not done that often anymore. Back in the day when Salt water fish and corals had short life spans in aquariums Plenum systems were more popular. Now with LR and LS they really aren't necessary and that could be why we can keep things alive longer.

J

 

i run a plenum on my refugium

 

I've never seen a plenum in a fuge. How interesting. Do you need to drain the bio-sludge with your setup or no?