Natural Nitrate removal

[da colts]

i have never fed my bacteria anything, i have read that you can feed them 5 ml of vodka a week but i have never fed anything and its nine years and counting.(besides.... the bacteria can go get their own vodka, this bottle is mine .

[dx7fd2]

Maybe its Vodka in VA, but here in CA its Tequila..."Let go of my bottle you voracious little bacteria you!!!"..and quit taking my lime wedges!!"

[crutkas]

[quote author=JohnO link=board=Newbie;num=1091586284;start=15#22 date=08/05/04 at 17:17:14]

Tangs will eat the algae, they love it! *:-) *The problem is that defeats the purpose. *The Calerpa uses the Nitrate to grow, you harvest the Calerpa and therefore remove the Nitrate from the system. *If, however you feed the Calerpa to the Tang, he will eat it and pass the rest through which ends up in the water again.

Make sense?
[/quote]

Wouldn't the plant convert the nitrate to something it can use? I haven't dealt with Biology that much but seems like it would.

[Birdlady]

Ha ha ha [smiley=beer.gif] [smiley=beer2.gif] [smiley=biggrinbounce.gif] [smiley=bouncylaugh.gif]
Yous guys are funny! That bacteria better keep their hands offa my Cosmo!!!

Thanks for the info DaColts!!

[JohnO]

Wouldn't the plant convert the nitrate to something it can use? I haven't dealt with Biology that much but seems like it would.

Quite correct, but depending on how you use the Caulerpa. If it's in a Fug, you harvest it, and feed it to your fish INSTEAD of your normal food, then no probs. The main idea, with Caulerpa in a Fug, is that it uses Nitrate to grow, you then harvest the Caulerpa, therby removing the Nitrate.

John :-)

[crutkas]

[quote author=JohnO link=board=Newbie;num=1091586284;start=30#34 date=08/08/04 at 00:00:22]

Quite correct, but depending on how you use the Caulerpa. *If it's in a Fug, you harvest it, *and feed it to your fish INSTEAD of your normal food, then no probs. *The main idea, with Caulerpa in a Fug, is that it uses Nitrate to grow, you then harvest the Caulerpa, therby removing the Nitrate. *
[/quote]

I'm sorry, I lost you. If i use the Caulerpa for Nitrate removal, then I just throw it away instead of recycling it and if I use it just to feed my tangs not really for Nitrate removal it is fine?

[JohnO]

You didnt lose me at all, you got it :-)

I guess looking at it from an energy cycle point of view is the best way I know how to explain. *Fish only metabolize ( use ) about 20% of what they eat, the rest they pass through their systems to the next animal in the food chain, all the way down to the bacteria.

So if you just use the Caulerpa as food, no problems. *If you use the Caulerpa as a Nitrate remover by harvesting it and putting it on your Roses, still no problem.

JMHO

John :-)

[crutkas]

Well, I have my fuge designs (a thread that I think got removed) and after hearing you guys on this thread, I'm going to add in a denitrate coil into my system.

I could be wrong here but I'm going to assume the wider / taller the coil is, the more nitrates it shall remove. The big issue I'd imagine would be the deoxygenized water leaving it. But with a fuge, that should help add in oxygen back in since the plants will help convert the CO2 back into Oxygen .... right? (Damn, I knew I should have taken more Chemistry classes instead of all those sweet sweet physics classes). Plants I was going to have in my system are :
Ulva Lettuce Plant (Ulva sp.) in the fuge for feeding or
Red Gracilaria Feeding Algae (Cultured) (Gracilaria sp.) in the fuge for feeding
Maiden's Hair Plant (Chlorodesmis sp.) in the tank since it looks freakin neat moving around with currents.

And since you guys like the Caulerpa, have some of that for feeding / fuge action

Where would be a good spot in the fuge to add in the DC,
inlet -> skimmer -> fuge -> baffels -> return is how my fuge will be set up.

[dx7fd2]

I think I am going to have the DC dump back into the return area and right back up into the display tank. (my 'fuge set up is essentially the same ...inlet, baffle,'fuge, return). I am not really to concerned about O[sup]2[/sup], the DC is supposed to function, in the lower portion of the tubing and up through the bio material, with very low O[sup]2[/sup] to benefit the bacteria that turn the Nitrate into gas.

If you check out the thread under the sand forum, "Controlled Plenum Wasting", there is a lot of information there as to how the plenum (meaning the concept) is an NNR (natural nitrate removal) system. The info here can apply to any system and is not limited to systems with plenums. In essence, the DC is a plenum in a bottle, low light level, low O[sup]2[/sup], and very slow water movement to allow the bacteria to feed. All this and it is natural too!!!

There are a lot of good links in that thread and a fairly lively discussion that will continue over the years. Here's the thread link:
http://www.3reef.com/cgi-bin/yabb/Ya...num=1087396461
Some of the info is new some of it very old and yet still relevant to this day. [smiley=2thumbsup.gif]

[glow=blue,2,300]Once again, 3Reef Rocks, 3Reef Rules, and will continue to do so!![/glow]

[smiley=sunny.gif] [smiley=sunny.gif] [smiley=sunny.gif]

[crutkas]

It isn't a big deal since the water coming out of the DC is such a small amount in the big picture it is not worth caring about?